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November 06, 2008, 03:57 PM ET
An Obama Administration May Favor Net Neutrality
The turnout and results of the election indicate that a great number of people are probably happily anticipating an Obama presidency. But some industries are wringing their hands over the policies and regulations that might come out of the new White House.
Right there in the hot seat with Big Coal and Wall Street financial firms: the telecommunications industry. According to a recent story from Bloomberg, Obama has plans for them.
“AT&T Inc. and Comcast Corp. will probably face new Internet rules backed by Google Inc. under Barack Obama’s administration, and find it more difficult to persuade the government to approve acquisitions,” Bloomberg reports.
“The Democratic president-elect’s top technology priorities include ‘network neutrality’ policies that would bar Internet-service providers from accepting payments to make some Web sites work faster than others.”
Higher-education institutions, with help from groups like Educause, have been big supporters of net-neutrality issues. One of their main opponents on Capitol Hill was Sen. Ted Stevens, the disgraced Alaska Republican who was chairman of the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee.
My, how times change.
The story also notes that consolidation in the telecommunication industry will slow under an Obama administration and that “companies such as Intel, the world’s largest chipmaker, and Microsoft, the biggest software company, may push Obama for more spending on science research … and immigration reform so foreign graduate students at U.S. universities aren’t forced to return home.” —Scott Carlson
Categories: Company-Watch
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