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NEWS > TECHNOLOGY > COMCAST SET TO BAN NET NEUTRALITY, FREEDOM
COMCAST SET TO BAN NET NEUTRALITY, FREEDOM
Aug 5 2008
Philadelphia, PA – The announcement of the FCC ruling over the weekend appeared to be a major step forward for Net Neutrality proponents, but the internet giant doesn’t appear to be letting up on its desire to control its customer’s web access.
According to insiders, Comcast has been slowly implementing a much more comprehensive plan to manipulate subscriber’s usage, of which the throttling of peer to peer networks is only one small step. Leaked company documents detail a plan to, among other things, monitoring customer emails, redirect requests to ‘questionable’ content, and even restrict access for customers using open source products such as Linux and Firefox. The stated intention is to ‘have people get used to paying for access’.
Going further into the details, the company plans to watch emails from specific users to monitor ‘behaviour patterns’, the redirection to ‘questionable sites’ will result in users being automatically sent a Comcast search page with sponsored results, and users trying to access sites using free software or operating systems will see their connection speed dramatically reduced. The documents also detail the type of language customer service will be directed to use in order to avoid customer complaints. It is unclear at this point how the FCC ruling will affect the company’s plans.
“Comcast isn’t so much interested in controlling people’s access for the sake of controlling access. They want to monetize the web in a more efficient way. People are so used to the web being free and they want people to pay,” said the insider. “By limiting free services, they can force people to pay. They don’t care about the moral implications in any way, they care about the money.”
The document also details plans to hold discussions with web giants Facebook, MySpace, and Google in an effort to extend their reach. The specifics of the plan with Google is to ‘have them understand the need to eliminate specific key word result’ amongst others, phrases such as Net Neutrality, Peer to Peer, download, software, and free. The discussions though are only a proposal and the company has made no overtures to the other companies.
“Comcast executives see themselves as the second coming. My guess is this ruling by the FCC has only made them go back to the drawing board, but I doubt it will have any impact on their plans or goals. It’s a hiccup, not an obstacle as far as they are concerned.”
Comcast officials had no comment on the insider’s claims. Our requests were directed to their sales division.
Martin Philton, Technology Correspondent
NEWS > TECHNOLOGY > COMCAST SET TO BAN NET NEUTRALITY, FREEDOM
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