AT&T made numerous concessions yesterday regarding net neutrality and other consumer-friendly matters in an effort to gain approval by the Federal Communications Commission before the end of the year for AT&T’s merger with BellSouth.  The proposed merger has been in review since its announcement in March; consumer groups and Internet companies have been pressing for the concessions as a condition of the merger, which would be the largest U.S. telecommunications merger in history.  Net neutrality is an important concession, with AT&T agreeing to treat all Internet content equally rather than charging premium fees for delivering certain forms of content, such as video, with preferential or “fast lane” treatment.  Correspondingly, other content, such as VoIP packets, cannot be slowed or blocked.  See the Connected World‘s discussion of net neutrality on pp. 20-21.  The net-neutrality condition put forth by AT&T expires in two years.  For more on the AT&T concessions, see article (subscription required).