Net neutrality 'bad idea and bad for the industry' says AT&T CEO

Tim Berners-Lee doesn't agree with you, Randall

AT&T's CEO Randall Stephenson has called net neutrality, and the recent specific US laws made up around it, "a bad idea and bad for the industry".

The telco industry calls non-neutrality of the internet "zero-rating", with desires to let business and profit lead the treatment of content providers on the internet, with some content being delivered slower, differently or - potentially - not at all depending on "fast lanes" or "sponsored data" concepts of internet provision, which could see end users being given monthly content allotments as "packages", but to view certain content outside these packages if it's paid-for by vendors.

Current net neutrality laws in the US prohibit - or severely curtail - such practices

"We got a really aggressive letter from the Federal Communications Commission about zero-rating — that's regulating pricing," said Stephenson, speaking at the Business Insider Ignition conference.

But Stephenson said net neutrality rules were stifling investment from potential content partners, adding that "we don't need two sets of rules" from the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission.

Speaking at the launch of pro-net neutrality film ForEveryone.net at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, the founder of the World Wide Web - Tim Berners-Lee - warned that governments and private companies will "wait until we're sleeping" and stealthily destroy net neutrality.

"When people did get out on the streets and planned petitions that was good, but the temptation to grab control of the internet by the government or by a company is always going to be there," he lamented.

Berners-Lee also cast doubt on the effectiveness of laws, saying:

"You want to control your citizens or exploit consumers - the temptation is huge. Yes, we can have things enshrined in law, but even then it won't necessarily stop people."

In the film, Berners-Lee showed his concern for plans to ‘package up' parts of the internet, and how this could adversely affect the World Wide Web as an informational and educational resource for the human race:

"[The web, for users, could become] like cable TV, and what they've got are a load of irritating, ad-based commercial services to subsidise the phone or the data plan and which give them a skewed view of what's out there. Then they've lost it.

"So we should use [the web] for education, for people finding out about their rights, finding out about gender rights for example, or teenagers finding out about their bodies growing up, and diseases. It's not just about getting on the web."