IBM, Cisco, Intel, and Sandvine make huge bank selling ISPs the networking gear needed to discriminate against online services that haven’t paid bribes for access to the “fast lane” — but it’s totally a coincidence that they’ve told the US government to make sure that the FCC doesn’t ban the corrupt practice.
They were part of a coalition of 33 arms dealers in the War on Net Neutrality who signed a letter to US Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker demanding that she step in to stop the FCC from regulating the net like a utility. None of them bothered to mention that they were in the business of peddling the materiel needed to fight the war.
“The Administration must act to protect against calls for utility-like common carrier regulation that would threaten demand for Internet infrastructure, reduce incentives for investment, hinder innovation and jeopardize [the Internet’s] success,” the companies wrote.
Companies that sell network equipment to ISPs don’t want net neutrality [Jon Brodkin/Ars Technica]