Verizon Defends Net Neutrality Proposal, Mobile Exclusion

Tom Tauke, executive vice president of public affairs at Verizon, defended his company's net neutrality proposals earlier this week at the Aspen Forum ( hosted by the Technology Policy Institute). At that gathering, Tauke defended the most controversial part of the Google-Verizon proposal released earlier this month - the exclusion of wireless form net neutrality rules. Tauke said that the wireless industry is still in the early stages of growth and that putting it under net neutrality rules would impede experimentation within the space.

Overall, Tauke says that the Google-Verizon proposal is a solid and fair plan:

"We believe that the proposal is rational, addresses the issues and concerns of the time, parenthetically fulfills the president's campaign promise of non-discrimination and transparency on the Internet, [and] provides guidance on more areas going forward," Tauke concluded. "But it certainly is not the answer or the end-all and the be-all. Some people in the public policy arena want all of the answers to any potential problem now. That isn't the way the policy process works; it's an iterative process."

But consumer group Free Press strongly disagrees with everything Verizon has to say about net neutrality, taking issue with Tauke's speech:

"Verizon is simply dead wrong in claiming their farce of a framework would fulfill President Obama's net neutrality promises. Verizon can't hide the fact that, if enacted, this pact would mark the end of the open Internet era," Free Press research director S. Derek Turner said in a statement.

Turner added that Verizon and Google cooked up "this scheme to carve up the Internet among themselves and other industry giants because they fear competition on the free and open Internet."

Thems definitely fighting words.

Source: PC World, image credit