Google, Verizon Deny NYT Story On Their Undermining Of Net Neutrality

[Rosco T.]

http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/05/google-verizon-net-neutrality

Google, Verizon Deny NYT Story On Their Undermining Of Net Neutrality
by Jason Kincaid on Aug 5, 2010

Yesterday, the New York Times published a story that detailed an agreement in the works between Verizon and Google that would effectively kill off net neutrality by allowing “Verizon to speed some online content to Internet users more quickly if the content’s creators are willing to pay for the privilege”. The news sparked outrage in the tech community, because Google has a long history of advocating net neutrality. Now both Google and Verizon are coming out to claim that the New York Times story is incorrect.

A report in The Guardian cites a Google spokesperson as saying ” “The New York Times is quite simply wrong. We have not had any conversations with Verizon about paying for carriage of Google traffic. We remain as committed as we always have been to an open internet.”

Verizon’s policy blog has posted a statement as well:

“The NYT article regarding conversations between Google and Verizon is mistaken. It fundamentally misunderstands our purpose. As we said in our earlier FCC filing, our goal is an Internet policy framework that ensures openness and accountability, and incorporates specific FCC authority, while maintaining investment and innovation. To suggest this is a business arrangement between our companies is entirely incorrect.”

Google’s own public policy blog doesn’t have anything on the story yet, but its Twitter account did comment on the matter:

“@NYTimes is wrong. We’ve not had any convos with VZN about paying for carriage of our traffic. We remain committed to an open internet.”

(More)

[woo me with science]

1. Both of those statements are interesting to parse. nt

[Rosco T.]

2. Ok, I"ll bite.. how do YOU parse....

The New York Times is quite simply wrong.
We have not had any conversations with Verizon about paying for carriage of Google traffic.
We remain as committed as we always have been to an open internet.”

The NYT article regarding conversations between Google and Verizon is mistaken.
It fundamentally misunderstands our purpose.
To suggest this is a business arrangement between our companies is entirely incorrect.”

@NYTimes is wrong.
We’ve not had any convos with VZN about paying for carriage of our traffic.
We remain committed to an open internet.”