In his call for free Internet access he highlighted the fact that just 20% of the world’s population currently has access to the web, and said that free unfettered access could be instrumental in giving people access to critical services such as healthcare.

“I would like to see people enrolled in a cheap data plan by default. I would like them to get it for free”  Sir Tim said during his speech.  “What about these people who have a signal but are not part of the web, who are not part of the information society?”

He went on to say that people could  ”create their own communities and share their own information” and suggested that network operators could indeed provide free connections on the basis that as people became more affluent, they would be prepared to pay for faster connections.

Dr Hamadoun Toure, the head of the UN’s International telecommunications Union, the United Nations body that oversees international telecoms, agrees with him.  In a recent interview with the BBC he said that free access to information should be a “universal Human right”.

Sir Tim also spoke about net privacy and neutrality, addressing concerns raised over the recent move by Google and others to create a “two-tier” Internet.  

“We assume that when you look up a [web page], that you can get any page because that is the way it has always been and that is why the web has flourished.  Of course a lot of companies would like to limit the pages you get.”  For example, he said, a firm that sells streaming movies may “like to slow down access to other people’s movies”.

Sir Tim has enormous influence and is a person that world leaders will listen to.  How successful his calls for a more open and accessible Internet are remains to be seen.

The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) began the talks on net neutrality after Google and Verizon said they wanted to see faster access speeds for websites that paid extra for the privilege.

“Any outcome, any deal that doesn’t preserve the freedom and openness of the Internet for consumers and entrepreneurs will be unacceptable,” said FCC chair Julius Genachowski.

Google and Verizon both deny that they were close to agreeing on how they would lead a “two-tier” Internet with Google saying “We remain as committed as we always have been to an open Internet”.

Further, Google’s founder Eric Schmidt said ”We have been talking to Verizon for a long time about trying to get an agreement on what the definition of what net neutrality is.  We are trying to find solutions that bridge between the hard core ‘net neutrality or else’ view and the historical telecom view of no such agreement.”

Net Neutrality would mean that no one type of traffic could be prioritised over another.  Failure to maintain this would mean that small businesses and individuals could see their services and websites harder to access than those owned and operated by large commercial businesses with advertising and products to sell.

The move by Google and Verizon would be a big blow for the common man and the general freedom of the Internet.  It has been a thorny issue for the FCC.

A recent court case limited the agency’s powers to police what happens to data when it ruled that the FCC did not have the power to sanction Comcast for throttling some traffic.As a result the FCC said it would reclassify broadband under a more heavily regulated part of the telecommunications law known as Title II. Cable and phone companies claimed the move would stifle investment in next generation broadband.

With the fear that these companies would resort to legal action, the agency began holding what critics termed “secret negotiations” aimed at forging a consensus on how to treat Internet traffic.

The FCC’s move to end these talks with firms such as Verizon, Google, Skype and AT&T suggest they broke down without reaching a decision.

Some public-interest groups believe, probably correctly, that such a move to a two-tier system would end the Internet we know and love today.

It remains to be seen what will happen from here on in.

According to the Pro Piracy Lobby website the provider experienced some heavy fire from disgruntled customers and privacy & free speech groups. It seems that the pressure on the provider was this intense that they decided to retract their decision and apologize to their customers.

Together with our new chairman of the board, the management agrees that limiting Internet access is not within the framework of our business, says Fredrik Winbladh, President of Perspektiv Bredband.

It is of great importance the we as a telecom and Internet operator, a so called common carrier, focus on delivering information. We can’t risk our position being questioned given the previous statement. The management and the company learned a lot from the debate that took place and we will use this experience to keep developing according to our vision of becoming the prime broadband choice of the Öresund region (Southern Sweden), says new Chairman Mikael Paulsson.

Two interesting statements. It seems that this episode clearly shows that companies will listen to their customers if only enough raise their voice.

This is an overwhelming result and I thought I explain the net(work) neutrality concept for the ones who do not know what it is. Internet providers do one thing, they provide access to the internet and make sure that you receive all the data that you request. It does not matter if you surf to the website of a big company like eBay (amazon, Microsoft) or to my blog (hehe, or even smaller websites). All data get the same treatment, none is preferred over the other.

The providers (Verizon, AT&T, Time Warner, Comcast, and others) want to change the way the internet works. They want to decide which sites get a fast data transfer, which sites get a slow one and which get none. What this means is clear, the more you pay the faster you go. This also means that they cold favor their own services over the ones of their competition.

Take a look at this funny video of the daily show.

Take a look at the save the internet website if you are living in the USA and want to help fight this.

The new poll wants to know about your main activity on the internet: Communicating (like icq, chats, forums), Content (creating websites, animations), downloading (Linux distributions, freeware), Gaming (online gaming, casinos, poker), Research (university, work, school) or Shopping.