奥巴马反对设立互联网快车道

President Barack Obama has urged the US communications regulator to ban internet “fast lanes” and reclassify broadband service as a public utility, sparking outrage among cable and telecoms groups.

巴拉克•奥巴马(Barack Obama)总统敦促美国电信监管机构禁止设立互联网“快车道”，并将宽带服务重新定义为公共服务，此举激起有线电视和电信企业的强烈不满。

Mr Obama weighed in for the first time with specific recommendations for the Federal Communications Commission, which is revising its definition of “net neutrality” – the principle that all internet traffic be treated equally.

这是奥巴马首次介入此问题，并对联邦通信委员会（Federal Communications Commission，简称FCC）提出明确的建议。FCC正在修改“网络中立”原则（即所有互联网流量都应得到同等对待）的定义。

His intervention follows a flood of opposition to the agency’s latest proposals, which have prompted 4m comments to the FCC. Its plan would allow internet service providers to charge services like YouTube to reach customers at higher speeds, though only on “commercially reasonable” terms. That sparked uproar among consumer groups and companies like Netflix, another target of such charges.

此前，FCC最新的建议招致抗议浪潮，收到的留言和评论多达400万条。该机构的方案将允许互联网服务提供商对YouTube等服务收费，以便让这些服务以更快的速度到达消费者，尽管这样做必须按照“合理的商业”条款。这激起了消费者团体和Netflix等企业的强烈愤慨，Netflix是此类收费的另一个目标。

Joining consumer groups and technology companies like Google and Facebook, Mr Obama said there should be a ban on paid prioritisation that would technically allow internet service providers to charge content companies like Netflix for a higher-speed service.

奥巴马站在了消费者团体和谷歌(Google)、Facebook等科技企业一边，表示应该禁止“收费优先”，“收费优先”将允许互联网服务提供商对Netflix等内容商收费，以换取为后者提供更快速度的服务。

“Simply put: no service should be stuck in a ‘slow lane’ because it does not pay a fee,” Mr Obama said. “That kind of gatekeeping would undermine the level playing field essential to the internet’s growth.”

“简言之：任何服务都不应因为没有交费而被卡在‘慢车道’里，”奥巴马表示，“这种收取买路钱的行为将损害对互联网的发展至关重要的公平环境。”

His comments triggered a sell-off in shares of cable companies, which are among the biggest providers of broadband internet.

他的言论引发了一轮有线电视股抛售，这些企业是宽带服务的主要提供者。

Comcast, the world’s biggest cable operator, fell 4.3 per cent, while Time Warner Cable was off 5 per cent. Comcast is seeking regulators’ approval for a takeover of TWC.

世界最大有线电视运营商康卡斯特(Comcast)的股价应声下跌4.3%，时代华纳有线(Time Warner Cable)股价下跌了5%。康卡斯特正在争取监管者批准其收购时代华纳有线。

Comcast, whose executives have been prominent donors to Mr Obama, and telecoms groups such as Verizon have vigorously opposed the president’s idea that the FCC should reclassify consumer broadband service as a public utility.

康卡斯特和Verizon等电信企业都强烈反对总统关于FCC应将消费者宽带服务重新定义为公共服务的想法。前者的高管一直是奥巴马的重要金主。