Finding common ground on an open Inte. Posted by Eric Schmidt, Chairman and CEO of Google, and Lowell McAdam, President and CEO of Verizon Wireless (Cross-posted on the Verizon PolicyBlog.)
Verizon and Google might seem unlikely bedfellows in the current debate around network neutrality, or an open Internet. And while it's true we do disagree quite strongly about certain aspects of government policy in this area -- such as whether mobile networks should even be part of the discussion -- there are many issues on which we agree. For starters we both think it's essential that the Internet remains an unrestricted and open platform -- where people can access any content (so long as it's legal), as well as the services and applications of their choice. There are two key factors driving innovation on the web today. Ask a Ninja on Net Neutrality. My chat with Google's Vint Cerf. Vint Cerf, Google's "chief internet evangelist" and an early innovator of the Internet, spoke to me by phone from Stockholm Tuesday, days after he sent a letter of support for net neutrality to the Federal Communications Commission .
Cerf, who co-designed the TCP/IP communications protocol used to construct the Internet, addressed criticism that Google is getting a free ride off of carriers and explained why he thinks the high-tech world needs those net neutrality rules. Google has been a vocal proponent of net neutrality rules, which would benefit Web content companies like theirs as consumers are guaranteed access to their growing number of browsing, maps, voice, and search services. Néutralité du web, open, standard, Neutralité du net, filtrage et régulation.