Swift Response to Net Neutrality Proposals

September 24th, 2009 • Industry News, Legal Issues
Tags: communications, FCC, net neutrality, The Progress and Freedom Foundation

The chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Monday proposed stricter rules to ensure that wireless and wireline Internet providers don’t block or slow traffic over their networks, a widely anticipated move that drew swift criticism from the telecommunications industry.

In a speech before the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., Julius Genachowski outlined plans to codify and expand “open Internet” guidelines first endorsed by the FCC in 2005. The Obama appointee said that instances of carriers obstructing online telephone services, intentionally degrading peer-to-peer file sharing and preventing access to political content, threaten to stifle technical advances and compromise the free flow of information.

“We have an obligation to ensure that the Internet is an enduring engine for U.S. economic growth, and a foundation for democracy in the 21st century,” Genachowski said.
Telecom trade associations and free market groups generally portrayed the announcement as unnecessary government meddling with the potential to undermine investment and complicate the legitimate need to manage traffic, spam and malware.

The FCC’s original policy stated that network operators can’t stop users from accessing lawful Internet content, applications and services or prevent them from connecting “non-harmful” devices, such as smart phones. On Monday, Genachowski advocated additional rules to prevent broadband providers from discriminating against particular types of content or applications, by for instance degrading service, and to ensure that carriers are transparent about the way they manage their network.

Open access advocates and online companies like Google Inc. of Mountain View have long argued that allowing carriers to throttle traffic based on sites or applications creates de facto gatekeepers with the power to pick online winners and losers. They applauded the announcement on Monday.

“This is a pivotal moment for the future of the Internet,” said Ben Scott, policy director at Free Press, on a conference call today.

In particular, he said the rules would the stop telephone and cable companies from pursuing their stated intention of beginning to sell “prioritization or quality of service” to companies. “Under such a model, the carriers would essentially say: ‘We can’t guarantee your application will work unless you pay us and then we’ll make sure yours work at the expense of others.’ That business model of pay for play . . . replicates the commercial market power that we have in every other dominant media form (including radio, television, magazines and newspapers). It reverses the most exceptional and dynamic thing about the Internet, which is that it is open.”

The net neutrality debate has heated up in the wireless arena in recent weeks, as controversy swirled over Apple Inc.’s decisions to block various applications from its popular iPhones. Notably, it denied the Google Voice app, a potential competitor to Apple’s carrier partner, AT&T Inc. Similar disputes have arisen over smart phone makers discouraging the use of their devices as wireless modems for laptops. How the proposed rules would affect these issues will depend on their final form.

Genachowski invited feedback from the industry, consumers and others, and said the FCC will hold public workshops as it begins the rule making process.

“This is not about government regulation of the Internet,” Genachowski said. “It’s about fair rules of the road for companies that control access to the Internet.”

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