AT&T's is now saying keeping America safe is dependent on them creating internet fast lanes

As states begin the process of undoing the corporate snow job going on in our federal government right now, big telecom companies like AT&T begin the process of rolling out the very predictable fast lane plans net neutrality advocates warned about—for the last four years. AT&T has been talking out of both sides of their mouth over the past few months, saying they want net neutrality, while spending tons of money to get rid of net neutrality rules. The talking point that big telecoms have pivoted to more and more in the last few months is an “Internet Bill of Rights.” As Gizmodo remarks, this is an duplicitous position to take when you are spending the kind of money that companies like AT&T spend on lobbyists.

A Bill of Rights for the internet is a common telecom talking point. And it’s common wisdom that their motivation for this may be that their lobbyists will end up writing the federal legislation, just like they routinely write state legislation. Still, with all of the chaos going on in privacy, access to the internet, and security, some sort of guarantee of individual rights sounds in theory like a good idea. What does AT&T say its positions are regarding this type of bill?

AT&T CEO Bob Quin explains why we need to believe AT&T and big telecoms in a new blog post.

But no discussion of net neutrality would be complete without also addressing the topic of paid prioritization. Let me start by saying that the issue of paid prioritization has always been hazy and theoretical. The business models for services that would require end-to-end management have only recently begun to come into focus. The rhetoric of this debate has centered on the concept of prohibiting fast lanes and slow lanes on the internet. Let me clear about this – AT&T is not interested in creating fast lanes and slow lanes on anyone’s internet.

So interesting, because just two days ago it began being reported that AT&T wants to create prioritized data contracts with content producing companies—like websites. But, in AT&T's defense, they are calling it something else and not "paid prioritization." So, in that sense AT&T isn't creating fast or slow lanes on the internet—they're just planning on making people pay them to have access to lanes that won't drive up consumer's bills fast. However, as CEO Quinn warns—the only thing keeping America from falling into a pit of fire are the goodness of big telecom hearts.