A few years ago, President Bush pledged
that every corner of the U.S. would have high-speed Internet by 2007.
Well, the year is drawing to a close and, still millions of Americans do not have access to high-speed Internet. The U.S. has dropped from 4th to 15th in the world in broadband access in the last five years — a result of the telco stranglehold on both broadband markets and broadband policymaking.

But that’s not all. Even when Americans can get online, an open and neutral Internet is not guaranteed. In the last year, phone and cable companies have been throttling the free flow of information on the Internet and cell phones — giving us a glimpse of a world without Net Neutrality.

A review of the five worst telco moments of 2007 (in no particular order):

1. AT&T Censors Live Webcast of Pearl Jam

In August, during the live Lollapalooza Webcast of the Seattle band Pearl Jam, AT&T muted lead singer Eddie Vedder just as he launched into a lyric against President Bush. The telco giant has a long history of breaking trust with its customers, including handing over private phone records to the government, promising to deliver services to underserved communities and then skipping town,
pledging never to interfere with the free flow of information online while hatching plans with the likes of Cisco, Viacom, RIAA and MPA to build and deploy technology that will spy on user traffic.

The censorship of Pearl Jam was further proof that these corporate giants simply cannot be trusted to protect the free-flowing Internet. Meanwhile, these same providers handed customer phone records over to the NSA without a subpoena, and are now strong-arming Congress for retroactive immunity. And they want us to trust them with the Internet?

2. Verizon is Caught Banning NARAL’s Text Messages

In September, Verizon Wireless blocked NARAL Pro-Choice America’s efforts to send mobile text messages to its members. After a New York Times expose,
the phone company reversed its policy, claiming it was a glitch. But apologies aren’t cutting it anymore. Verizon’s move to block this new form of political speech interferes with its users’ right to get information that they choose to receive. Although Verizon backed off, banning text messages is perfectly legal under current rules – a regulatory offspring of some of the most intense phone company lobbying in history.

When pressed to allow for free speech protections, Verizon lawyers refused
to change the explicit language in their user agreements that reserves their right to cut off, block or permanently cease to provide services to anyone.

3. Comcast is Busted for Blocking BitTorrent

In October, an Associated Press
investigation revealed that Comcast was secretly blocking peer-to-peer file sharing programs like BitTorrent and Gnutella. Comcast’s blocking is a glaring violation of Net Neutrality. BitTorrent is rapidly emerging as one of the most successful online platforms for the sharing of large files. Comcast has a natural incentive to keep customers
watching movies and television shows through their system, not the Internet.. Despite the evidence, Comcast’s David Cohen told Ars Technica
that Comcast does not block access to file sharing applications and that their practice is just “reasonable network management.” In response, SavetheInternet.com members filed a petition urging the FCC to stop Comcast from blocking Internet traffic.

And what can you do if you find out that you’ve been blocked by
Comcast? Switch to AT&T or Verizon and suffer with slow DSL speeds and their own draconian terms of service. Free Press has sifted through the agreements
of several Internet and cell phone providers and found similar language that reserves their right to censor or cut off users at their whim.

4. FCC’s Rosy Report Wilts Under Scrutiny

In February, the FCC released its biannual report
on the U.S. broadband market. On the surface the numbers sounded good. High-speed Internet lines increased by 26 percent during the first half of 2006, and broadband was reportedly available in 99 percent of all U.S. ZIP codes. But the broadband reality is much darker. According to
Free Press Research Director Derek Turner,
the FCC used an “absurd standard” to measure broadband — 200 kilobits per second. “That was barely fast enough to surf in 1999, but is far below what’s needed to enjoy streaming video, VoIP, flash animation or other common Internet applications.”

Indeed, speeds are much slower than what’s available in the rest of the world. Half of all U.S. broadband connections are slower than 2.5 megabits per second — yet in countries like Japan and South Korea, they’re rolling out 100 megabit services. And there’s no real competition. 98 percent of high-speed residential lines in America are
provided by incumbent cable or telecom companies. Using ZIP codes alone vastly overstates the availability and competition for broadband services. While the FCC’s data has been widely debunked, the telco lobby crowed that the FCC had proven beyond a doubt that the American broadband marketplace was a haven of free market competition — which leads us to our final and fifth “worst moment.”

5. Astroturfs Spread Fear and Doubt about Net Neutrality

Washington policymaking has spawned a cottage industry of phony
front groups put in place by phone and cable companies eager to spread misinformation about anything that threatens their control over the network. Nowhere is this more evident than in their campaign to defeat Net Neutrality. Throughout the year, companies like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast have funneled millions of dollars towards “Astroturf” front groups such as the disingenuously named NetCompetition.org, Hands Off the Internet and The Future Faster.
For example, Hands Off the Internet — which sounds like a
citizen-activist group that protects the Internet from gatekeepers — is actually a telco-backed group that spends hundreds of thousands of dollars on video PSAs and “grassrootsy” Web campaigns aimed at eliminating efforts to restore Net Neutrality protections.

True to form, these front groups spent much of 2007 cranking out phony PR, mouthing telco taking points and spreading FUD against any effort to ensure that the Internet is open, neutral and free of interference by gatekeepers. And these groups aren’t going away soon. Expect to see them on our worst moments list at the end of 2008.