[ArsTechnica.Com] AT&T: net neutrality OK if we can cut priority access deals

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AT&T says it’s all for net neutrality now, as long as it can cut priority access deals with content providers. Critics say a ban on those kind of deals is what net neutrality is really about.

The nation’s top telco claims it is willing to meet the Federal Communications Commission halfway on net neutrality. The olive branch comes in the form of a letter that AT&T sent to the FCC on Tuesday, which suggests specific wording for Internet non-discrimination rules. In September the agency released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would toughen up its Internet Policy Statement with an enforcement mechanism and transparency requirements.

Now AT&T Vice President James Cicconi says that’s fine, just as long as the final Order “eschews a strict nondiscrimination standard and instead focuses on ‘unreasonable and anticompetitive’ forms of discrimination that adversely affect consumers.” […]

http://arstechnica.com/telecom/news/2009/12/att-offers-net-neutrality-compromise.ars