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AT&T: Stop telling the American people that net neutrality is a good thing

Categories: AT&T
By: , IntoMobile
Wednesday, November 25th, 2009 at 4:26 AM

AT&T’s Chief Lobbyist, Jim Cicconi, is pissed that Andrew McLaughlin, the White House Chief Technology Officer, said this regarding China’s censorship of the internet and how companies in the USA are treating their networks:

“If it bothers you that the China government does it, it should bother you when your cable company does it.”

Jim says that Andrew’s comments are “ill-considered and inflammatory” and that:

“It is deeply disturbing when someone in a position of authority, like Mr. McLaughlin, is so intent on advancing his argument for regulation that he equates the outright censorship decisions of a communist government to the network congestion decisions of an American ISP. There is no valid comparison, and it’s frankly an affront to suggest otherwise.”

That pretty much sums up AT&T. They pay this Jim dude to pester people in Washingston all day to make sure that the law is favorable to the company’s bottom line. They’re not even ashamed to admit it, the man’s title is “Chief Lobbyist”, implying that there are many more serving under him.

How about this AT&T:

  1. Fire all your lobbyists and spend the salaries of those fired lobbyists on actually improving your network
  2. Change your business model for wireless data so that it respects the law and doesn’t impact profits too negatively
  3. Stop suing people who talk smack about your network

Brainstorm that shit out and get back to me later kthxbye!

[Via: Washington Post]

About The Author

Stefan Constantinescu

Stefan Constantinescu (@WhatTheBit on Twitter) has loved technology since as far back as he can remember. It started with computers, but in the past few years his passion has turned to mobile devices. As a mobile phone enthusiast who lives and breathes devices that connect to the internet, he knows he is not alone with this radical fascination of all things wireless. He is strongly opinionated and enjoys a good debate so leave comments in his posts and he’ll get back to you! Stefan began blogging as a hobby in the fall of 2006 and joined IntoMobile in the summer of 2007. Later he got a job at Nokia in March 2008, but as of June 2009 he has rejoined the IntoMobile team. He is currently based out of Helsinki, Finland.