President Obama to FCC: Reclassify Broadband Service as Title II to Protect Net Neutrality President Obama is urging the FCC to reclassify consumer broadband service -- to open it to broader government oversight and regulation -- with the goal of protecting the net neutrality principles that his administration has long supported. In a lengthy statement that also included a video, Obama asserted there is no higher calling than protecting an open, accessible and free Internet. He urged the FCC to reclassify broadband service as a Title II telecommunications service but with caveats that would shield it from some aspects of regulation for such services. The time has come for the FCC to recognize that broadband service is of the same importance and must carry the same obligations as so many of the other vital services do. To do that, I believe the FCC should reclassify consumer broadband service under Title II of the Telecommunications Act -- while at the same time forbearing from rate regulation and other provisions less relevant to broadband services. This is a basic acknowledgment of the services ISPs provide to American homes and businesses, and the straightforward obligations necessary to ensure the network works for everyone -- not just one or two companies, Obama said in a statement. FCC chairman Tom Wheeler has previously said the agency would consider reclassifying broadband under Title II -- a move staunchly opposed by Comcast, AT&T, Verizon and other Internet service providers as an unnecessary step that would impose undue burdens and decrease investment in high-speed networks. ISPs oppose the reclassification of broadband under Title II, because it would give the FCC leeway to impose price regulations, conditions on wholesale access and other controls. In response to Obamas statement Monday, Verizon said Title II would apply 1930s-era utility regulation to the Internet, calling it a radical reversal of course that would in and of itself threaten great harm to an open Internet, competition and innovation. The telco also suggested such a regulatory change wouldnt withstand legal challenges from ISPs and argued that the light-touch regulatory approach has been central to the Internets growth over the past two decades. Verizon challenged the FCCs previous set of net neutrality rules, and the D.C. Circuit Court earlier this year struck down rules banning Internet providers from blocking or discriminating against certain types of content. Comcast EVP David Cohen, at an investment conference in May, argued that Title II doesnt prohibit paid prioritization -- one of the hot-button issues in the FCCs revised net neutrality rules it proposed earlier this year. The whole history of Title II is that carriers are allowed to provide different levels of service at different prices, Cohen said. Such an approach also would run into a buzzsaw of Republican opposition on Capitol Hill, where the incoming GOP Senate majority can be expected to place pressure on the FCC even though it is an independent agency. The commission includes three Democrats and two Republicans. The National Cable and Telecommunications Assn., the lobbying group that represents the cable industry, said that it was stunned that the president would abandon the longstanding and bipartisan policy of lightly regulating the Internet and calling for extreme Title II regulation. The NCTA said that this tectonic shift in national policy, should it be adopted, would create devastating results. It called on the FCC to leave the issue to Congress, which it said can easily unravel the legal and jurisdictional knot that has tied up the FCC in crafting sustainable open Internet rules, without resorting to the rules of the rotary dial phone era. Netflix has been among the most vocal content companies calling for broadband to be regulated under Title II. In a filing with the FCC this summer, the company argued that Title II provides the FCC with a solid basis to adopt prohibitions on blocking and unreasonable discrimination by ISPs. Opposition to Title II is largely political, not legal. Obamas announcement was greeted by public interest groups, which have been pressing the FCC to reclassify broadband. The president wasnt kidding when he said hed take a back seat to no one on net neutrality, said former FCC commissioner Michael Copps, who is not serving as an adviser to Common Cause. As someone who has been pushing for Title II since 2002, when the FCC wrongly classified broadband, I am thrilled. Now the FCC must show the same kind of leadership and courage. Demand Progress, which has led a vocal campaign for reclassification, also praised Obamas announcement. This is a huge victory for the millions of Americans who have called for Title Ii reform, and a huge blow for the cable companies that seek to establish fast and slow lanes on the Internet, said David Segal, executive director of Demand Progress. In a statement, FCC chairman Tom Wheeler called Obamas statement an important and welcome addition to the record of the Open Internet proceeding. As an independent regulatory agency we will incorporate the presidents submission into the record of the Open Internet proceeding, he said. We welcome comment on it and how it proposes to use Title II of the Communications Act. Wheeler has been working on a hybrid approach to net neutrality -- which would reclassify the so-called back end of broadband service while applying a lighter regulatory touch to retail service. News of the proposal was greeted with skepticism by public interest groups, who argued that it still wouldnt prevent Internet providers from giving priority to certain types of content, like big media companies that pay for speedier access to the consumer. The reclassification and hybrid approaches before us raise substantive legal questions, Wheeler said. We found we would need more time to examine these to ensure that whatever approach is taken, it can withstand any legal challenges it may face. Wheelers original proposal in April set out to establish rules that would survive legal challenges yet still would not reclassify the Internet. Public interest groups sounded the alarm over such an approach, saying that they would be too weak to prevent so-called fast lanes, or paid prioritization by Internet providers. After the outcry, Wheeler asked for public comment on his proposal as well as other approaches, like reclassification or banning paid prioritization outright. The FCC has been inundated with more than 4 million comments, a record for an agency proceeding, with groups like the Writers Guild of America calling for reclassification. But there also has been a counter campaign by groups urging the FCC to take a lighter approach to regulation. In his statement, Obama also said that the FCC should ban paid prioritization, saying that kind of gatekeeping would undermine the level playing field essential to the Internets growth. No service should be stuck in a slow lane because it does not pay a fee. he said. Wheeler also has said that he opposes Internet fast lanes. Obama also said that the rules should apply to mobile services as well. The previous set of net neutrality rules, passed in 2010, spared such services from some of the more significant restrictions. m.youtube/watch?v=uKcjQPVwfDk
Posted on: Tue, 11 Nov 2014 00:34:19 +0000
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