June 20th, 2007

Copowi.com - The First ISP to Guarantee Net Neutrality



Glendale, CA (PR.com) A new Internet Service Provider, Copowi.com, was launched today explicitly guaranteeing to keep the Internet open and fair, in line with the requirements of net neutrality.

“The Internet is one of the greatest advances in humanity, we cannot afford to let it slip through our fingers and become a controlled and managed medium like cable TV,” says Chris Ellis, co-founder of Copowi.

The term net neutrality has come into prominence over the last two years and refers to the concern about network owners and operators taking control of their Internet traffic for commercial reasons.

The fear, echoed by a grassroots movement of close to 2 million people, is that such control will fundamentally change the nature of the Internet. Instead of a free-flowing, open and democratic Internet we will have an Internet that is micro-managed to deliver the greatest profits to the conglomerates.

The issue of net neutrality has resulted in a push for government regulation of the Internet as a way of keeping it open and fair. But there is concern that government regulation is not the answer.

“The push to regulate the Internet is misguided,” says Ellis. “Whilst it seems like the easy answer, government regulation is always backward looking by nature and not suited to a fast-moving medium like the Internet. It may do more harm than good.”

The answer, according to Ellis, is to leave it to the market, but not the market as it currently exists which is dominated by monopolies, duopolies and oligopolies.

“We need to reinvigorate the market through real competition. This is what Copowi will do,” says Ellis.

Copowi stands for Community Powered Internet and has been set up as a social enterprise Internet Service Provider where the focus is on community rather than individual profits.

Call for AAA TechNet