Because of lenient net neutrality rules, some ISPs...

Because of lenient net neutrality rules, some ISPs have allowed Internet performance to deteriorate to create leverage over edge providers, Level 3 told an aide to FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai last week, said an ex parte filing posted in docket 09-191 Wednesday (http://bit.ly/RslvJA). ISPs are “acting like would-be robber barons for the Internet era, with control over the only means of access to their millions of residential end users,” Level 3 said. “The Commission should ensure that it doesn’t make the same mistake again,” the transit provider said, asking the commission to “require ISPs to interconnect on commercially reasonable terms.” The “heart” of such a rule would be that “an ISP must offer to interconnect without imposing access charges,” Level 3 said. “The Commission was right in the Open Internet Order to be concerned about the threats that bottleneck ISPs pose to the free and open Internet. That threat is real, and the damage to the Internet is already occurring."