"The commission is looking to give itself the authority to regulate the transmission component of broadband Internet service."
According to the Times, "The proposal would designate broadband transmission as a telecommunications service, which, as with telephone service, would make it subject to stricter regulation."
The Commission's Chairman said that it would not regulate content, according to the Times.
A dissenting commissioner stated that the proposal "will place the heavy thumb of government on the scale of a free market to the point where innovation and investment in the ‘core’ of the Net are subjected to the whims of ‘Mother-May-I’ regulators.”
My own review of news coverage shows a largely positive response from those who see FCC regulation as a way of getting broadband access available to many people who do not live in economically viable markets. Others are not so positive. CNET.com notes: "Lawmakers in Washington, D.C., have taken notice and a growing number of both Republicans and Democrats, agree with the phone companies [that the FCC should not consider the Internet to be within its jurisdiction]. In total, 282 Congressional leaders have signed letters to the FCC asking the agency to abandon its reclassification plans." The Hill reports that: "Lawmakers seemed to split Thursday largely on party lines, with Democrats praising the FCC for its plan to impose new rules on broadband companies like Comcast, Verizon and AT&T, and Republicans criticizing the agency for reaching beyond its congressional mandate."
Leave a Reply