Two of the major U.S. broadband providers, AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) And Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA), wrote letter to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman stating that none of them are in favor of paid internet prioritization as it is likely to have an adverse affect over the customers.
The U.S. Senator, Patrick Leahy, sent letters to the top ISPs urging them to decline any “paid prioritization” deals under which, content providers are to pay additional fee to ensure fast and smooth delivery of Interne traffic. Both of these broadband providers stepped forward to ensure their stand on web traffic.
The executive VP of Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA), David Cohen, said,
“We have repeatedly made clear – both to our customers and more generally to the public – ‘Comcast doesn’t prioritize Internet traffic or have paid fast lanes, and we have no plans to do so.”
A similar response was received from AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) as the company mentioned no plans to have internet prioritization in near future.
Another major ISP, Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ), said that it has no such plans for internet prioritization. The chairman of FCC, Tom Wheeler, said earlier that he would not allow any anti-consumer prioritization and he along with other critics are worried that such practices might categorize internet into “fast lane” and “slow lane” service sections.
Most of the ISPs oppose the critics’ idea to reclassify ISPs as public entities to stop paid prioritization by saying that such classification would hinder development and investments in these companies.
Earlier, AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) and Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) agreed to come together for a user tracking business to monitor online behavior of users on mobile devices. The primary aim of the system is to understand the content that interests users and later offer paid insights to the advertisers.
This article has been written by Prakash Pandey.
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