The inventor of the web has said that governments must act to preserve the principle of net neutrality.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee told the BBC that legislation may be needed if self-regulation failed.

He been asked by the UK government to negotiate an agreement on an open internet between service providers and content firms like the BBC and Skype.

Sir Tim would prefer self-regulation by the internet industry, but progress has been slow.

“If it fails the government has to be absolutely ready to legislate,” he said.

“It may be that the openness of the internet, we should just put into law.”

Net neutrality, the idea that all traffic on the internet should be treated equally, has been a controversial issue in the United States and is now moving up the political agenda in the UK.

Net neutrality is an important issue in Internet related politics. Without net neutrality, Internet service providers could offer packages in which certain online services, such as video streaming websites, e-commerce websites or certain web applications have increased priority over other web services.

The concept of net neutrality is such that all data traffic on the Internet is treating in an equal manner.  This is already becoming an issue in the case of Internet services providers which shape traffic of certain types. This is often done to curb data usage for high-use customers. However, when other traffic is prioritised and ISP to Internet/web company partnerships come into existence, this could mean that we see ‘packages’ of Internet access which allow faster access to certain websites while leaving other sites (who may not be able to partner with ISP financially) out in the cold.

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“…The Commission for Rural Communities estimate at least two million people in the countryside have slower speeds than 2Mbps, not to mention those 166,000 in “not spots” where there is no broadband at all…” – surely something that has been accurate for some time. ADSL suppliers, I’ve always believed, have been ripping people off for years. I have friends who live in rural areas and barely break a meg, antique wiring, ropey phone connections and the old classic “…I’m sorry sir, your actually paying for up to 8 meg but I see your 17 miles from the nearest exchange…” bah! Sort yourselves out! You’ve been taking peoples cash for years, time for an upgrade methinks, not like these huge companies don’t have the capital.

“…High-speed Internet access will be essential in years to come for all businesses – rural and urban – and those communities that do not have it will be at a severe economic and social disadvantage…” said Charles Trotman, Head of Rural Business Development. Ok now this is a classic statement, this would have been perfect if claimed in the early nineties but the internet is not a new development it’s been researched since the 60’s and started to fully emerge as a viable technology in ’89 so its 20 years later and ALL businesses, in some form or another, rely on the internet for lots of things from email to stock checking.

“…The Government has promised everyone will have speeds of 2 Megabits per second (Mbps) by 2012…” Sigbritt Löthberg of Sweden has been supplied with an internet speed of 40 gigabits, that’s right 40 GIGABITS! I’m sure she would laugh her Swedish behind off at the above statement. This lady was supplied this speed internet last year so I guess it just comes down to that old fashioned excuse, money, or should I say the unwillingness so spend it. Down with copper wire! Let’s start moving into the noughties with fibre optic, let’s show the rest of the world that us Brits do want to move forward technically, stop building domes, focus less on tea drinking and move forward with the rest of the world. Amen.

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