Two-tier Internet

Some US Telcos want to be able to start dividing Internet traffic into two tiers, based on if they get paid a premium.

This is somewhat akin to a Telco saying that when you make a phone call, they will deliberately have a slow connection with lots of static on the call unless you pay them an additional fee.

Vint Cerf is one of the two people who created the main protocol the Internet runs on. He is regarded as the Father of the Internet (and incidentially will be in Wellington in late March). He testified this week to a US Senate Committee on why what the US Telcos want goes against the fundamental principles the Internet was built on which have made it so sucessful.

If this issue doesn’t send you to sleep, go read what Vint said.

Also worth reading Peter Griffin in today’s NZ Herald who does a nice plain English explanation of it all.