Tell AT&T: Commit to Net Neutrality

That right is under threat, so I’m writing to ask you to join me in a new action to stop carriers from limiting what you can do with your wireless phones and tablets.

Of course with a political science major you can learn the nuances of these complex political issues.

Free Press has joined forces with advocacy group Open MIC to urge shareholders of AT&T, Sprint and Verizon to support Net Neutrality. There’s already been one major success: Beastie Boy Mike D and other shareholders forced the companies to include discussions of Net Neutrality during their upcoming shareholder meetings.¹ Now we need your help to organize more shareholders in this campaign to change these companies from within.

Companies like AT&T, Verizon and Sprint are already making it harder for all of us to access what we want online.² And the FCC’s Open Internet rules don’t protect us from carriers that want to slow down, block or interfere with our mobile Internet connections. Without these protections, we don’t really have Net Neutrality.

Help give shareholders a voice. Put Pressure on AT&T, Sprint and Verizon to commit to Net Neutrality.

Under the current Net Neutrality rules passed by the FCC in 2010, wireless carriers are free to speed up connections to websites and apps that pay for faster service, while slowing down others. For example, these companies can make deals that allow one website (like Amazon) load faster than another (like eBay). And they’re already scheming to make these sorts of moves.³

As an app and Web developer, that worries me. It should worry you, too.

Net Neutrality is vitally important to both innovators and disadvantaged communities. According to recent surveys, lower-income communities and people of color rely on wireless devices — and the wireless Internet — more than other groups. And just because someone gets online via a wireless device, they shouldn’t be forced onto a restricted Internet.

In the next several weeks, AT&T, Sprint and Verizon shareholders will be voting on whether to commit to wireless Net Neutrality principles.

We’ll share your signature with executives at these companies as well as with shareholders running this campaign. Take action now to show your support for Net Neutrality and corporate accountability.

Thanks,

Ben Byrne
Software Developer
Albuquerque, N.M.

1. "Mike D: Fighting for Your Right to Get Online," Savetheinternet.com, Feb. 15, 2012: http://act2.freepress.net/go/8664?akid=3397.9932713.vsPfb7&t=7

2. "AT&T On Net Neutrality: Trust Us, We Know What You Want," Business Insider, August 12, 2010: http://act2.freepress.net/go/9285?akid=3397.9932713.vsPfb7&t=9

3. "AT&T: Net rules must allow ‘paid prioritization’," CNET, August 31, 2010: http://act2.freepress.net/go/9286?akid=3397.9932713.vsPfb7&t=11