Dave Shiflett | October 18

Bloomberg - There's a battle going on for control of the Internet, and if consumers don't watch out they're going to be playing second modem to the captains of industry.

Bill Moyers delivers that warning in ``The Net at Risk,'' an engrossing special airing Oct. 18 on PBS at 9 p.m. New York time.

The black hats are worn by a handful of media conglomerates who hope to build a two-tiered Internet, with the fastest tier going at premium prices. Everyone else will surf at reduced speeds, which can be the fast track to Net oblivion.

The Agonist is a charter member of the Save The Internet Coalition

Speed may kill in some arenas, but it's the basic ingredient of life in cyberspace.

After opening remarks by Moyers, still sure of tongue and dapper in a crisp tan suit, reporter Rick Karr does an excellent job providing historical context.

In the beginning the Internet was truly democratic -- anyone with a computer and a dial-up connection could log on and surf as fast as the equipment allowed. But the system was accessed via old-fashioned copper telephone wires that weren't capable of high-speed transmission.

No worry. In the 1990s phone and cable companies promised to re-wire America with fiber-optic cable, thus keeping pace with some European and Asian providers. All they wanted in return were tax breaks and the rate hikes to cover infrastructure outlays.

Library of Congress

The upgrade would be massive, several experts tell Karr. By one estimate the old copper-wire dial-up connection would take 82 years to download the contents of the Library of Congress. The fastest fiber connection can do the job in about 45 seconds.

The promises, however, turned out to be a lot of fast talk, according to Bruce Kushnick, billed as a ``telecommunications muckraker.''

According to Kushnick's group, TeleTruth, telephone companies received $25 billion in tax breaks while their revenues soared 128 percent in the 1990s. But they didn't build the high-speed system.

``They basically took the money and ran,'' Kushnick says.

Moyers and Karr offer a fair and balanced report. Fred Upton, a Republican congressman from Michigan, argues that huge content providers such as Yahoo! Inc. and EBay Inc. should have access, at higher rates, to a faster lane. And Mike McCurry, Bill Clinton's former press secretary, insists the separate and unequal fears are without foundation.

Blogs

Yet there's no mistaking where Moyers stands. He claims the corporate grab would give well-funded entities a huge advantage over upstarts, and give providers the ability to determine marketplace winners.

Moyers is especially concerned with the risk to free speech -- and he's not alone.

Timothy Wu, who teaches technology law at Columbia University in New York, says some blogs that now ``can take on a cable news network'' will lose their audiences if they get stuck in the slow Internet lane.

The pajamanistas, as bloggers are sometimes called, have much to fear from the men in the gray flannel suits.

Moyers is buoyed by citizen support of Net equality, a cause that has created interesting political bedfellows. We hear representatives from MoveOn.org and the Christian Coalition sing from the same hymnal, along with Larry Pratt, the sometimes hot- barreled chief of Gun Owners of America.

Pajama Game

The program also shows how Lafayette, Louisiana, built its own fiber-optic system, much to the chagrin of BellSouth Corp. and Cox Cable Communications, who attempted to get their pals in the state legislature to short-circuit the move.

They failed -- and refused to come on air to talk about it -- but Moyers says 14 state legislatures have made it difficult ``if not impossible'' to built separate systems. Cable and telephone companies, he notes, are greasing the political skids with a cash lubricant, spending around $40 million a year lobbying state legislators.

Moyers says the weeks before the November elections are crucial because lame-duck congressmen may be especially susceptible to corporate greasing before they leave office. It may be time for the pajaministas to get dressed, leave their homes and lobby for equal high-speed access.

For more information on the program, visit http://www.pbs.org .

(Dave Shiflett is a critic for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)