• Los Angeles Times et al., Tuesday, August 10, 2010 11:59 AM

Offering a roadmap for net neutrality, Google and Verizon outlined a proposal on Monday that would forbid broadband carriers from prioritizing traffic on the Web, but would ultimately allow firms with "differentiated" products to purchase faster speeds. Wireless networks, too, would be exempt from the rules.

"Despite nearly a year's effort, negotiators for Google and Verizon have crafted a framework for net neutrality that fumbles one of the central issues involved in the debate: the principle of non-discrimination," concludes the Los Angeles Times.

"Critics worry that broadband network owners such as Verizon and AT&T will be tempted to prioritize Web traffic based on profit motives," writes Mercury News.

If the proposal goes through, it will "kill Internet freedom," Justin Ruben, director of the advocacy group MoveOn.org, tells USA Today.

"Google and Verizon can try all they want to disguise this deal as a reasonable path forward, but the simple fact is this framework, if embraced by Congress and the Federal Communications Commission, would transform the free and open Internet into a closed platform like cable television," Free Press Political Adviser Joel Kelsey said in a statement on Monday. "This is much worse than a business arrangement between two companies. 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."

According to Daily Finance, the new proposal "pays homage to the concept of net neutrality, so long as folks don't look too far into the future."

"Baffled" by the agreement, Jeff Jarvis writes on his influential BuzzMachine blog: "As I see it, the agreement makes two huge carve-outs to neutrality and regulation of the internet: mobile and anything new," adding, "Mobile is the internet."

"We welcome all efforts to promote openness on the wireline Internet, but believe that any satisfactory agreement must also include protection for wireless Internet users to access Web sites and applications of their choice," Markham Erickson, executive director of the Open Internet Coalition -- which counts Google as a member -- wrote in emailed statement to Information Week.

Hoping to allay broad concerns, Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg, said, in effect, that "any lawful Internet content will be treated equally over Verizon's broadband network ... and the company will not engage in 'paid prioritization' of traffic," according to Mercury News.

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