FCC Regulator Worried About Broadband Plan
FCC member Robert McDowell, the agency's senior Republican, has a strong message for colleagues crafting a sweeping national broadband plan designed to extend the Internet to all Americans: do no harm. The technology blueprint, already a month behind schedule, will outline a strategy for achieving nationwide, affordable Internet access over the next decade. In a Friday speech to the Free State Foundation think tank, McDowell warned against heavy-handed industrial policy. "It should remain flexible and iterative, relying on incentives rather than coercive mandates," he said, adding that "no one can foresee with certainty the innovation and dynamism that is coming over the horizon." McDowell also expressed concern that the agency might upend longstanding policy by reclassifying broadband -- now a lightly regulated information service -- as a heavily regulated telecommunications offering. This could result, he warned, in higher broadband prices, undermining one of the plan's key goals. At the FCC's request, the congressional deadline was bumped to March 17.
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