Impending fall elections derail compromise legislation as net neutrality is remanded back to the FCC.
Internet neutrality flashed back into the news last week after months of simmering in the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Energy and Commerce. In the face of Republican opposition to his proposed network neutrality rules, committee chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., threw up his hands and gave up trying to reach a negotiated settlement on a set of compromise net neutrality rules.
The matter is likely now to be remanded back to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), whose chairman, Julius Genachowski, is itching to have broadband reclassified as a telecommunications service. Genachowski was a key architect of President Barack Obama's technology platform in which Obama pledged to implement net neutrality rules on behalf of the technology industry.
The issue of net neutrality is one that neither Congress nor the FCC may be smart enough to solve. The underlying battle cry for fairness is complicated by technology bandwidth issues as well as market incentives and the idea that business should receive a fair return on investment. On the one side are public-interest groups and Internet companies, such as Google and Skype. In the opposing camp are large telephone and cable companies, including AT&T, Verizon Communications, and Comcast. Proponents of net neutrality want to see regulations adopted that would prevent phone and cable operators from either blocking or slowing down Web services, online video, and Internet phone calls that compete with their core businesses. In addition, they want guarantees that broadband companies will not favor their own traffic or that of their business partners who can afford priority access.
The broadband companies, on the other hand, are concerned that high-bandwidth applications may bog down their systems, and they want the flexibility to manage network traffic if and when surges occur. Such concerns are even more an issue for wireless networks than for landline ones since wireless has more bandwidth constraints. Most of the phone companies also have recently spent millions if not billions of dollars upgrading their networks for broadband, and they were hoping to earn back their investment by offering premium services. Needless to say, they don't want to be hampered by cumbersome net neutrality regulations.
The Committee on Energy and Commerce spent months trying to come up with a compromise and finally arrived at a proposal that would regulate wire line networks but defer to broadband providers in managing wireless networks. Net neutrality violations in wire line networks would have garnered fines of up to $2 million.
Waxman issued a statement last week saying that, "If Congress can't act, the FCC must." The committee's abdication resulting from Republicans fearing to back the proposal in the face of impending fall elections leaves the issue of net neutrality at the doorstep of the FCC. Ironically, the FCC also has had its efforts to resolve the net neutrality question blunted by court action. In April, a federal appeals court threw out the agency's claim that broadband is a lightly regulated "information service" and thus comes under the FCC's jurisdiction to mandate net neutrality rules. The U.S. Court of Appeals slapped the agency's hand and said it had overstepped its authority. The matter originated from the FCC's order for Comcast to stop blocking subscribers from using BitTorrent to share movies and other large files.
Public interest groups now are calling on the FCC to reclassify broadband as a telecommunications service in order to carry through on Obama's net neutrality promise. Broadband companies have lived with FCC oversight for many years. Nevertheless, they are concerned about the agency's tightening its grip over their industry.
Jim Cicconi, senior vice president of external affairs at AT&T, expressed disappointment that the compromise legislation failed. The bill would have prevented what he called "intrusive FCC regulation," he wrote in a blog. "We remain equally convinced that the regulatory overreach being urged on the FCC is a major mistake that would adversely impact jobs and investment and would likely be overturned in court," he said.
Not all broadband providers agree with AT&T, however. Dish Network, for instance, said that in order to create a net neutrality rule, the FCC will have to redefine broadband as a telecommunications service. "The FCC needs a sound jurisdictional foundation to implement sensible rules of the road for the protection of consumers and competition" the company said in a statement.
A Facebook spokesman said the company supported net neutrality regardless of who implements it but was concerned about discriminatory behavior by wireless carriers.
Neutrality is a principal that advocates no restrictions by Internet service providers nor government on content, sites, platforms, the equipment that may be attached to the network, or modes of communication allowed. Proponents argue that telecommunications companies are trying to remove competition by controlling the pipeline and imposing tiered service levels.
Experience has shown that unless industry abuses are widespread or eminently corrosive, government regulation often imposes more restrictions rather than implementing protections it seeks to guarantee. When it comes to freedom of expression and even fair use, let's hope net neutrality rules aren't the cure that proves equal to, or worse than, the current malaise.
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