Ahead of a scheduled vote by the Federal Communications Commission on
net neutrality—which involves the FCC potentially limiting the ability of
Internet service providers such as AT&T, Verizon and Comcast to
restrict certain content and sites from their data networks—a Republican
commissioner for the FCC said the commission is not listening to the “needs of
the market” and warned that the proposal could result in job losses.
Robert McDowell, a Republican commissioner of the FCC, called the net
neutrality proposal a “threat to Internet freedom” in an opinion piece published in The Wall Street Journal. In it, McDowell
argues that consumer protection, which net neutrality advocates say is lacking,
is adequate, and government intervention into the Internet is misguided.
“Analysts and broadband companies of all sizes have told the FCC that new rules
are likely to have a perverse effect of inhibiting capital investment,
deterring innovation, raising operating costs, and ultimately increasing
consumer prices,” he wrote.
The proposal would build upon a framework developed by House Energy and
Commerce Committee Chairman and Sen. Harry Waxman, D-Calif., which would see
the agency move phone and cable companies into the Title II, or Broadcast
Servers, section of the Telecommunications Act passed in 1996. In September,
legislation aimed at regulating how Internet providers such as Comcast offer
Internet service to their customers collapsed in the face of Republican
opposition.
Waxing poetic, McDowell ended the piece invoking the impending winter solstice,
the darkest day of the year. “On this winter solstice, we will witness
jaw-dropping interventionist chutzpah as the FCC bypasses branches of our
government in the dogged pursuit of needless and harmful regulation,” McDowell
wrote. “The darkest day of the year may end up marking the beginning of a long
winter's night for Internet freedom.”
Others argue that the proposal doesn’t go far enough in protecting consumers.
Andrew Jay Schwartzman, senior vice president and policy director of the Media
Access Project, told Reuters it “is likely that
there is going to be strong language disfavoring” paid prioritization, a type
of “fast-lane” service that allows content to be downloaded more quickly.
Whatever the outcome of this battle, Schwartzman told the news service he
doesn’t see this as the end of the war over Internet regulation. "I would
expect challenges from all directions—people who think it's gone too far and
people who think it hasn't gone far enough,” he said.
Earlier this month, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski laid out the general
framework for a net neutrality proposal he said was designed to empower
consumers and entrepreneurs, spur investment in broadband infrastructure, and
address the needs of Internet service providers. The chairman laid out four
points of the framework, which he said were rooted in ideas advocated in a
bipartisan spirit and consistent with President Obama's commitment to keep the
Internet "as it should be, open and free."
“Broadband providers have prevented consumers from using the applications of
their choice. The framework is designed to guard against these risks while
protecting the needs and interests of providers," he said during the Dec.
2 press conference in Washington. "Broadband plays an essential part in
allowing small businesses to lower their costs and reach new customers around
the globe. It is the Internet's openness and freedom that have enabled its
unparalleled success. It is a quality that must be preserved and
protected."
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