Wow… Are we finally going to see a true move toward net neutrality? Could it be that we’re finally going to have telecoms committing to not selling bandwidth to the highest bidder?

Could it be?

AT&T has apparently offered an olive branch to the Net Neutrality crowd in its quest to merge with BellSouth. According to the Save the Internet Blog, AT&T has committed to not using the power of the merged company to stifle internet connectivity and give consumers true choice in services…

“… commits that it will maintain a neutral network and neutral routing in its wireline broadband Internet access service. This commitment shall be satisfied by AT&T/BellSouth’s agreement not to provide or to sell to Internet content, application, or service providers, including those affiliated with AT&T/BellSouth, any service that privileges, degrades or prioritizes any packet transmitted over AT&T/BellSouth’s wireline broadband Internet access service based on its source, ownership or destination.”

Brilliant. Once one goes, they all go. If this merger happens, you can bet that this agreement will place an enormous amount of pressure on other telecoms (Verizon? I’m looking at you!) to do the same.

This just got really interesting.

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