Net Neutrality Update

DSL Reports tells us that the Congressional telecom bills have been watered down to just TV. Even the Barton bill, which originally contained Net Neutrality language, has been changed to say "Let the FCC Decide." This is the same as saying WHATEVER! The FCC's own Harry Potter has been waiving his magic wand around so much for the Tele-Barons that I'm surprised it has any juice left. Maybe that juice is being provided by the "Telecom & technology firms [who] spent $152 million in the first half of 2005 alone to lobby Congress as they were preparing the rewrite....The biggest communications spender for all of 2005 was the USTA [surprise], whose members include the former regional Bell operating companies." Now that BT has told its bandwidth hogs to pay more or get off their network, it seems that a tiered internet (or a metered internet) is almost upon us. Even Qwest CEO Dick Notebaert says that a Tiered Internet is Reality; and he is so irrelevent he has to echo the big guys in hopes VZ will buy his debt-riddled @ss and give him a big golden parachute. Love telecom. Just love it lately.