SaveTheInternet.com Coalition
MEDIA ADVISORY FOR: CONTACTS:
Thursday, August 17, 2006 Albuquerque – Gary F. Maricle, 505-217-2105 (or 505-307-2947)
Albuquerque – Robb Greathouse, 505-255-2652
Santa Fe – Leland Lehrman 505-982-3609
*** Press Event: Thursday, August 17, Noon ***
Small Businesses & Thousands of New Mexico Residents Ask Sen. Bingaman To Defend Internet Freedom
Thursday: Local members of diverse SaveTheInternet.com Coalition will deliver over 6,500 petition signatures to Bingaman’s Albuquerque & Santa Fe Offices
ALBUQUERQUE – This Thursday at 12:00pm at Senator Jeff Bingaman’s Albuquerque and Santa Fe offices, local members of the diverse SavetheInternet.com coalition will urge the senator to defend Internet freedom for small businesses and local families during an important upcoming Senate vote.
Big telephone and cable companies like AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast are spending millions lobbying Congress to eliminate Net Neutrality. This rule, in place since the Internet was created, prevents Internet service providers from deciding which websites open quickly on people’s computers based on which sites pay them the most. The House already voted to eliminate Net Neutrality. Sen. Bingaman could be the deciding vote in the Senate.
Over 750 diverse groups have come together as the SavetheInternet.com Coalition – including New Mexico small businesses, leading consumer groups, MoveOn, the Christian Coalition, Gun Owners of America, Craig from Craigslist, musicians REM and Moby, Free Press, and others. This coalition collected over 1 million petition signatures online, including over 6,500 in New Mexico. Local residents will deliver the petitions to Bingaman’s offices Thursday at noon.
“Small businesses like mine depends on a neutral Internet, where the website of a small entrepreneur can be viewed just as easily as the site of a big corporation,” said Gary Maricle, a MoveOn member who owns a chili shop in Albuquerque and owns 20 chili-related e-commerce websites including www.NMchili.com. “A neutral Internet allows businesses to compete on merit, not based on which company can afford to pay gatekeepers like AT&T to have their site open more quickly than their competitors. We need Senator Bingaman to declare his support for Net Neutrality so that small businesses and everyday families have an equal right to communicate online as giant corporations.”
Telephone and cable companies have already made clear what they would do if Net Neutrality is eliminated. On December 1, 2005, the Washington Post reported: “William L. Smith, chief technology officer for Atlanta-based BellSouth Corp., told reporters and analysts that an Internet service provider such as his firm should be able, for example, to charge Yahoo Inc. for the opportunity to have its search site load faster than that of Google Inc.”
(Link: http://www.moveon.org/r?r=1902). Small businesses would also be pitted against big corporations.
MoveOn and Christian Coalition wrote this joint op-ed on the issue: http://www.moveon.org/r?r=1884)
EVENT DETAILS:
WHO: Local small businesses, consumers, MoveOn, Free Press, and other SavetheInternet.com Coalition members
WHAT: Petition delivery to Sen. Bingaman – over 6,500 New Mexico residents supporting Net Neutrality
WHERE: Sen. Bingaman’s offices. In Albuquerque: 625 Silver Avenue, SW In Santa Fe: 119 East Marcy
WHEN: 12pm this Thursday, August 17, 2006
GREAT VISUALS: Boxes of petitions, local residents speaking and delivering petitions to senator’s office
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