AT&T agrees to observe Net Neutrality principles for at least 24 months.

[kpete]

AT&T Yields to Neutrality, Paves Path to Congress
In a striking victory for Internet freedom advocates, AT&T officials agreed on Thursday night to adhere to strict Network Neutrality conditions if allowed to complete their proposed $85 billion merger with BellSouth.


Neutralized:
AT&T Chief Ed Whitacre

The phone company filed a “letter of commitment” with the Federal Communications Commission in which it promises to observe Net Neutrality principles for at least 24 months. Now it’s left to Congress to follow the FCC’s lead and make Net Neutrality permanent under the law.

According to AT&T’s letter, the merged company:

“… commits that it will maintain a neutral network and neutral routing in its wireline broadband Internet access service. This commitment shall be satisfied by AT&T/BellSouth’s agreement not to provide or to sell to Internet content, application, or service providers, including those affiliated with AT&T/BellSouth, any service that privileges, degrades or prioritizes any packet transmitted over AT&T/BellSouth’s wireline broadband Internet access service based on its source, ownership or destination.”

AT&T’s concession followed more than a week of often pointed negotiations with the two Democrats on the commission, Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein. This was compounded by tens of thousands of letters from SavetheInternet.com and Free Press activists who demanded that the FCC allow no merger without Net Neutrality.

more at:
http://www.savetheinternet.com/blog/2006/12/28/att-yields-to-neutrality-paves-path-to-congress/

[ThomCat]

1. Warning bells should be going off.

All they're doing is delaying the gutting of the internet for 2 years. Seriously, 2009 will be here pretty quickly, and will it be okay to gut the internet then simply because they waited 2 years? And then they'll have the Bell South territory too.
x(

[itsmesgd]

2. In other words, they will kill us gently

I hate to be so full of hate right now, but I'm watching CNN show what it's like to hang someone (complete with pics). I am about to burst with angst.
Net Neutrality is our last chance, once we lose the net, we will have to go to shortwave radios- until they jam those. I'm already getting my radio equipment and I rec that everyone else do the same.