Two-Tier System for Internet?????????

This week I received an email from ebay. This email was different from the usual emails containing information about discounts and the hot selling products customized to my preferences. The email talked about the telecom powers trying to use their enormous size and political muscle to control the internet accessibility.The phone and cable companies now control more than 95% of all Internet access. These large corporations are spending millions of dollars to promote legislation that would divide the Internet into a two-tiered system.The top tier would be a "Pay-to-Play" high-speed toll-road restricted to only the largest companies that can afford to pay high fees for preferential access to the Net. The bottom tier -- the slow lane -- would be what is left for everyone else. If the fast lane is the information "super-highway," the slow lane will operate more like a dirt road.

If this is indeed true and looks like it certainly, this is indeed a serous issue. First there are cost issues and many normal people will not be able to afford the high speed Internet. This might result in a decline in sales for the online companies. The other issue could be more employees accessing the Internet at workplace and might result in lesser productivity .

For more information, check this link at http://www.itsournet.org/ .

The other prominent issue would be the controlling of the Internet standards and legislation. There is still some efforts at reaching consensus and as expected the U.S is trying to control the legislative powers and be the controlling force for setting Internet standards.

This is an interesting link I visited recently. It will be fun especially for people from Tamilnadu.

http://video.google.com/
videoplay?docid=4413202459678535244&q=tamil