• GigaOm, Wednesday, March 14, 2007 10:45 AM

Over the past few years, Google has been one of the loudest voices championing the cause of Net neutrality. However, is it on the level?

These days, Google is in the business of cutting deals with the very same telecom companies it's lobbied against. It wants to become the preferred provider for certain carriers' networks. Recent comments by Google Senior Policy Counsel Andrew McLaughlin suggest the Web conglomerate may be softening its liberal stance on the hot-button technology issue: "Net neutrality will ultimately be solved by competition in the long-run," he said. "Cutting the FCC out the picture would probably be a smart move. It is much better to think of this as an FTC or unfair competition type of problem."

Google's position is that telecom and cable companies shouldn't be allowed to charge for bandwidth usage in a tier-system. That, McLaughlin said, would be unfair. "There is a more pragmatic view that it is OK [to charge] as long as it is done in a non-discriminatory way." What is the difference between that view and the anti-Net neutrality view? In the latter instance, Web providers want to charge for higher bandwidth usage--presumably in a uniform manner. McLaughlin says it's fine to charge Web companies "as long as it is done in a non-discriminatory way."

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