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Verizon Wireless and Google CEOs back open net
23 October 2009
The CEOs of Verizon Wireless and Google have come together to make a united statement supporting the US government’s moves towards an open internet. Lowell McAdam and Eric Schmidt say that they want the internet to remain “an unrestricted and open platform”.
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net neutrality
Google
Verizon
FCC
Lowell McAdam
Eric Schmidt
The companies published the 900-word statement from their two CEOs — self-declared “unlikely bedfellows” — on the day that the US regulator, the Federal Communications Commission started its debate on net neutrality.
Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam — tipped by some as the eventual successor to Ivan Seidenberg as CEO of the whole of Verizon — and Google CEO Eric Schmidt say that FCC chairman Julius Genachowski “has promised a thoughtful, transparent decision-making process”.
They say they “look forward to taking part in the analysis and discussion that is to follow. We believe this kind of process can work, because as the two of us have debated these issues we have found a number of basic concepts to agree on.”
The joint statement comes in curious contrast to a speech made by Seidenberg on the opening day of the Supercomm conference, when he warned that a change in the structure threatens to “interrupt the flow of private capital” into the business.
Seidenberg said that net neutrality backers believe “that network providers like Verizon and applications providers like Google, Amazon and others occupy fundamentally different parts of the internet ecosystem — a binary world of ‘dumb pipes’ on the one hand and ‘smart applications’ on the other.”
Now, McAdam and Schmidt have said that for Verizon Wireless and Google “there are many issues on which we agree”.
They note: “The minute that anyone, whether from government or the private sector, starts to control how people use the internet, it is the beginning of the end of the net as we know it.”
McAdam and Schmidt comment: “Both of our businesses rely on each other. So we believe it’s appropriate to discuss how we ensure that consumers can get the information, products, and services they want online, encourage investment in advanced networks and ensure the openness of the web around the world. We’re ready to engage in this important policy discussion.” GTB
Read the article in full on Verizon's policy blog
http://policyblog.verizon.com/BlogPost/675/FindingCommonGroundonanOpenInternet.aspx
and Google's policy blog
http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2009/10/finding-common-ground-on-open-internet.html