Net Neutrality

The Kansas City Business Journal, home of Sprint-Nextel & Embarq, tackles the Net Neutrality debate:

1. "How do you call it neutral when people want the government to intervene in something that's always been unregulated?" said Dan Hesse, CEO of Overland Park-based Embarq Corp. Hesse, whose company is the nation's fifth-largest local phone provider, said he should be allowed to assess higher access fees on Web companies that eat up more bandwidth. If he can't, Embarq and others will have little incentive to upgrade their networks for Internet access, Hesse said. "The notion is: Can you sell first-class seats?" he said. "Because if you don't, the whole thing is going to go down to the lowest common denominator." Airlines that sell first class seats in the US are in BK!!!
2. "Internet-based companies are quick to point out that the telecom providers that sell Internet access would be met with little demand if users weren't able to access the rich applications and Web sites tech firms build."
3. [Internet-based companies have] "already paid its way onto the Internet by buying bandwidth connecting its computer servers to the Web for "tens of thousands of dollars." "I'm not getting a free lunch," he said. "I'm writing a dramatically large check."
4. Sprint Nextel, like its telecom peers, favors no neutrality laws but instead supports letting the FCC explore the issue. [Sprint-Nextel doesn't sell DSL anymore; Embarq does. Sprint stills owns the IP backbone network though].