Regulating Before Regulation, Ctd.

Maybe the writing is on the wall after all:

A week after Charter Communications backpedaled on plans to implement NebuAds' controversial behavioral tracking and ad serving platform, another of the vendor's ISP partners has put on the brakes.

CenturyTel, which was among the first ISPs to test the NebuAd platform, will no longer put it into action across its whole network, as had been its plan. A spokesperson, Annmarie Sartor, said the company had not determined a definite date to flip the switch, but "we were looking at some time this summer," she said.

Now the deal is off until further notice.

Unlike Charter's statement, which cited subscribers' concerns, CenturyTel said it was motivated by the urgings of Congressmen Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, and Joe Barton, a Texas Republican, who said the technology "raises several red flags."