Verizon Urges New Approach To Net Regulation
Verizon's top lobbyist Wednesday urged Congress to rewrite telecommunications rules to limit the FCC's authority to regulate the Internet and instead require a more collaborative approach.
In prepared remarks before the New Democrat Network, Tom Tauke, Verizon's executive vice president for public affairs, policy and communications, said that given the changing nature of today's communications landscape, traditional definitions of service providers do not apply given the variety of services they offer. As a result, he called on Congress to rewrite telecom rules to provide a "process that uses the innovative, flexible and technology-driven nature of the Internet to address issues as they arise."
Tauke noted that the FCC's authority has come under question as a result of the court case involving the agency's efforts to impose network neutrality rules on Comcast but dismissed suggestions that broadband should be regulated under traditional telephone network rules.
"Instead of the traditional rule-making process, federal enforcement agencies could structure themselves around an on-going engagement with Internet engineers and technologists to analyze technology trends, define norms to guide such questions as network management, and understand in advance the implications of new, emerging technologies," said Tauke, a former GOP U.S. House member from Iowa.
He added that in dealing with "bad actors," the government should use "understandable principles that can provide guidance but are informed by experience. Some will suggest that more detailed rules are needed, but by adopting the approach I have outlined, we can both protect consumers and competition and assure the flexible, adaptive oversight that fits the innovative nature of the Internet that we want to preserve."
The public interest group Free Press blasted Tauke's comments, saying Congress anticipated today's converged communications environment in the 1996 telecommunications act and gave the FCC appropriate authority. "Tauke's speech illustrates the incumbents' desire for a toothless, do-nothing agency," Free Press Executive Director Josh Silver said in a statement. "After eight years of deregulation, consumers have been left with higher prices, lower speeds and ever-dwindling choices. The last thing this country needs is another law written by special interests for their own benefit."
AT&T Senior Executive Vice President Jim Cicconi, however, said in a statement that any questions over the FCC's authority to regulate the Internet should be dealt with by Congress, saying "the proper answer is not for the FCC to get adventurous in
interpreting its authority, as some are urging."
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