• NY Times, Monday, March 6, 2006 10:30 AM

According to The New York Times, the fear that phone companies will start charging Internet publishers for displaying their pages at faster speeds mounted yesterday as AT&T announced it would buy BellSouth, creating a telco behemoth with $130 billion in sales and 70 million phone customers in 22 states. Why? Because it was the Bells' idea to share the costly burden of upgrading their networks with Internet companies needing to send out data that requires more bandwidth per consumer. The combined company could presumably put some serious lobbying weight behind the initiative. The cost-sharing idea has raised red flags among lawmakers and consumer and technology groups eager to preserve open access to the Web. They say that one way or another, the Bells' plan will force consumers to shell out more money for products and services on the Web, as the phone companies are unlikely to raise consumers' subscription fees for more bandwidth. Since the phone companies won't turn to consumers for help--and they certainly won't expect anything from the government--that leaves Web content providers. The telcos want to create a system where Web sites can pay extra to bump their data into a kind of superhighway, where it won't mix with other sites' data, and will be guaranteed more speedy delivery. The Bells say the so-called "fast lane" won't slow down normal traffic--meaning the existing network will be as fast as it is today. However, skeptics say the proliferation of services like broadband TV will naturally slow down the existing networks, making the transition to the high-speed lane necessary for some content providers.

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