Thursday, May 06, 2010

We told you: White House unveils push on broadband rules

Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Washington

Published: May 6 2010 00:49 | Last updated: May 6 2010 00:49

The Obama administration on Wednesday handed Google and other web content providers a significant victory as it announced that cable and telecommunications companies would face tough new regulations on how they manage their high-speed internet networks. An official at the Federal Communications Commission, the US media regulator, said that chairman Julius Genachowski would on Thursday announce that the FCC will seek to regulate broadband service providers such as Comcast and AT&T under a more rigorous legal framework.
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The move would open the door for the FCC to implement so-called net neutrality regulations that would bar the companies from favouring some content and discriminating against other traffic over their networks. Google, Amazon and other content groups strongly support net neutrality rules.

The FCC decision comes in the wake of an appeals court ruling last month that, in effect, stripped it of its authority to regulate broadband companies.

With the announcement, the FCC begins a process to assume greater powers by classifying broadband providers as a “Title II” or “telecommunications service”. It can do this by a vote of the five-member commission.

An FCC official said that the commission would also set “meaningful boundaries to guard against regulatory overreach”.

The FCC is expected to emphasise that while it will seek new net neutrality regulations, it is not expected to enforce rules on rates, unbundling and other regulations it could have under Title II.

But telecommunications and cable groups affected by the ruling are not expected to see any silver lining in the FCC’s allegedly “light touch” approach.

“You can call it an ice cream sundae, it is still Title II,” said one industry insider in Washington. Representatives of the cable and telecommunications industries declined to comment.

Markham Erickson, executive director of the Open Internet Coalition, a group that represents Google and others, said that the move ensured “consumer choice and innovation on the broadband internet will receive the protections this essential communications infrastructure for the 21st century requires”.

Additional reporting by Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson and Paul Taylor in New York

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Comment: The contrary is true-look beyond your nose-this is the government first entry into governing the internet-this was down off the radar screen as will its brother bills soon to follow.

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