Google, Verizon Proposal Shrinks Net Neutrality

Google and Verizon have unveiled the results of their talks on Internet regulation and supporters of net neutrality aren't happy. The firms' proposals champion the idea of requiring Internet providers to give equal priority to all traffic, but only through regular broadband lines, the AP reports. Wireless phone services and traffic routed through private channels would be exempt from any such restrictions under the plan, which Google and Verizon hope will form the basis of FCC regulation.

The deal sets up "tollbooths on the information superhighway," an adviser with the Free Press media-reform group complained to the Los Angeles Times. "It's a signed, sealed, and delivered policy framework with giant loopholes that blesses the carving up of the Internet for a few deep-pocketed Internet companies and carriers." The CEOs of Google and Verizon told reporters that the plan would preserve the openness of the Internet while allowing companies to experiment with "managed" services for data-hungry applications like games and online video.
(More Google stories.)