Michael Arrington posted an interesting piece on TechCrunch yesterday - “Going Medieval: Time-Warner Begins Metered Bandwidth Testing.”

For several years broadband providers have been seeking ways to profit more from control of the pipeline so that they could block competing applications and providers. Unless restrained, more and more will follow Time-Warner’s example. If consumers even think “net neutrality,” broadband providers and their political action committees (PACs) will scream about their infrastructure investments, etc. The behavior of the broadband providers, like Time-Warner, plays well into the regulatory capture phenomenon.

We believe there needs to be a level playing field. All are charged a flat fee for access regardless of quantity and content being delivered. If an individual pays for 10 Mb connectivity, then that’s what should be delivered; or, if one pays for 500 Gb/month data transfer - that is what should be delivered. Selective metering, blocking, packet shaping, etc. do not have a place.

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