Who owns the Internet? In the article, Who owns the Internet? We have a map that shows you, by Ben Worthem, CIO Magazine supplies a map of who owns the routers and the distribution core. Worthem concludes, ‘For starters, while AT&T and Verizon are clearly the two biggest owners at the core (they dwarf Qwest, the other remaining baby bell), they don’t own anywhere near enough for us to be worried about a monopoly. Also, the cable companies really own very little of the core, which isn’t much of a surprise since they are primarily focused on the last mile. Nonetheless, it is startling to see.”
He goes on to add: “The map focuses on the backbone, i.e. where a packet goes after it passes through the last mile and into the core of the Internet. The question I was hoping it would answer was if one or two companies owned enough of the backbone as to give it or them too much control over the heart of the Internet. My feeling is that while AT&T and Verizon own an awful lot, they don't own enough to monopolize the core.” This is covering the distribution of the intenret and not the content. But it does indicate who controls access to this content. Thanks to Valdis Krebs for sharing this article and map.
But what about net neutraility and the counter move to let the telecoms have more control over what they carry. Ben Worthem also writes a blog, Net Effect, and he gives a good explanation of the issue of net neutrality in his blog. For those that are not familiar with it, the net neutraility issue is over the principle that all traffic that travels over the Internet should be treated the same regardless of the recipient, sender or the type of information it is. The online content providers are in favor of it and feel it has been de facto law for some time. The telcoms want to treat diffetent types of data differenlty to make more money since they invested a lot in it. Others feel the telcoms will use this approach to block competitors like Vontage. I am not an expert on this issue but I would agree with those who argue for net neutrality to keep the Internet open. The is looming fight in the US Congress over this.
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