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Question: Write your position (3 to 4 paragraphs) about Who Controls the Internet based on Dr. Wu

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Let's say you're an entrepreneur who has an idea to build a wireless fob that finds your keys even if you left them in Virginia or Barcelona. Or say you want to design a refrigerator that transmits a signal to Safeway, instructing it to deliver a gallon of milk every time you're running low. To enter the market you will have to turn to one of the four mobile phone carriers that today exercise an oligopoly over wireless device communications: Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile.

Good luck. Get ready for an endless set of hurdles, including lengthy trials, revenue sharing and demands to cripple or modify features, without any guarantee of final approval. All that before your fob or fridge can transmit a tiny signal. In practice, many innovative devices never reach the market. The Big Four tend to approve only established partners whose devices fit their business plans, which is why we have yet to see all those wireless devices that were supposed to be in our future.

The firms already control what phones or devices reach Americans; 95% of cell phones are sold by the wireless carriers themselves. They strictly control phone design, blocking features that might threaten their revenue, like timers that keep track of how many minutes you've used each month. The carriers have also crippled or blocked alternative means of connecting wirelessly, like Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, because they want you to burn up minutes on their networks and charge extra fees.

The good news is that the federal government will soon have a chance to change all that and throw open America's airwaves to innovation and entrepreneurship. It will come in the form of an auction, within the next year, of the few remaining pieces of a precious national resource--licenses to the nation's wireless spectrum. This particular chunk of spectrum is becoming available because TV stations must stop using it to broadcast old-fashioned analog television by February 2009.

That's why this year's auction is so important. The Federal Communications Commission will soon deliver an initial set of rules to govern the spectrum auction. What's needed to spur innovation is a simple requirement: that any winner of the auction respect a rule that gives consumers the right to attach any safe device (meaning it does no harm) to the wireless network that uses that spectrum. It's called the Cellular Carterfone rule, after a 1968 decision by the FCC in a case brought by a company called Carter Electronics that wanted to attach a shortwave radio to AT&T 's network. That decision resulted in the creation of the standard phone jack. Applying the Carterfone rule to the next spectrum auction would ensure that our key fob designer need only look up standard technical specifications and then build and sell his device directly to the consumer. The tiny amounts of bandwidth the fob used would show up on the consumer's wireless bill.

The right to attach is a simple concept, and it has worked powerfully in other markets. For example, in the wired telephone world Carterfone rules are what made it possible to market answering machines, fax machines and the modems that sparked the Internet revolution.

Attachment rights can break open markets that might otherwise be controlled by dominant gatekeepers. Longshot companies like Ebay or YouTube might never have been born had they first needed the approval of a risk-averse company like AT&T. If you've invented a new toaster, you don't have to get approval from the electric company. Consumers decide how good your product is, not some gatekeeper.

But who has the political courage to push such ideas? To date, House Representatives Edward Markey (D--Mass.) and John Dingell (D--Mich.) have taken the lead in Congress by holding hearings on the issue. John McCain is the only presidential candidate so far to take a serious interest. Others should take notice. If America's reputation as the world's leading innovator is to be sustained, we need to get wireless policy right.

Tim Wu Professor at Columbia Law School and Author

Answer 1

The internet is not a property of someone alone and shared by everyone that tends to use it . But the companies like the major internet services provider and major IT companies are trying to manipulate and supress the product that can reach the customer. These compnaies have been controlling the user access to the service and product by restrict the product and service that reach the user , They manipulate and try to get into the minds of the user by various method and technique to trick them into thinking what they are offering is best and the other product is not of the much necessity. If the new product want to be in the market they first need to get the approval of these self-profiting companies and these companies often try to get the profit share from new companies an d if they disagree they are often kicked out. Like for example , facebook bought the whats-app on the term of whats-app that facebook will not display ads on the app and the app will be free for the user and the facebook will not collect data from the whats-app user for the advertisement and will not sell it to the advertising companies , but the facebook stood on its agreement and than started collecting the data and sold it to the advertisment companies , to oppose the CEO of whats-app resigned and his money was also not given to him about $750mn because he opposed the idea of major tech gaint and did not comply to its need. So yes the major companies are maipulating the small companies to offer what the major companies want and does not allow them to offer product that are more efficient and effective and have more feature and easy to use.