Debate Emerges Over FCC History On Net Regulation
April 12, 2010
| 1:24 PM
An AT&T executive argued Monday that the FCC would be taking an "unprecedented" step if it moves to reclassify broadband as a "telecommunications service," an action some net neutrality advocates have called on the FCC to take in the wake of a court decision last week.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled last week that the FCC overstepped its authority by cracking down on Comcast for interrupting service to users of the BitTorrent file-sharing service. Many observers said the ruling will likely affect the FCC's network neutrality proceeding aimed at preserving an open Internet.
In a blog post Monday, Hank Hultquist, AT&T's vice president for federal regulatory policy, argued that those who argue for the FCC to make such a move are rewriting history by claiming broadband policy was once regulated under Title II of the telecommunications act.
"Some believe, incorrectly, that broadband Internet access used to live under the watchful eye of a wise and beneficent FCC. In this latter-day Eden, the FCC regulated broadband Internet access as a telecommunications service under Title II," Hultquist wrote. "But then the FCC was tempted into taking a bite out of the Title I apple, and pretty soon they had eaten the whole thing." He goes on to note that both Democratic and Republican FCC chairmen have chosen to define broadband as an "information service," not subject to stricter telecommunications rules under Title II.
"The reality is that if the commission decides to classify any Internet access service as a telecommunications service under Title II, it would be doing so for the first time," Hultquist argued. "And that would be unprecedented."
However, former Obama administration official Susan Crawford, now a University of Michigan law professor, argued in an op-ed in Sunday's New York Times that the FCC under the Bush administration in 2005 "declared that high-speed Internet access would no longer be considered a 'telecommunications service' but rather an "information service.' This removed all high-speed Internet access services -- phone as well as cable -- from regulation under the common-carrier section [Title II] of the Communications Act."
In its 2005 order, the FCC said that, "Facilities-based wireline broadband Internet access service providers are no longer required to separate out and offer the wireline broadband transmission component (i.e., transmission in excess of 200 kilobits per second (kbps) in at least one direction) of wireline broadband Internet access services as a stand-alone telecommunications service under Title II, subject to the transition explained below. In addition, the Bell Operating Companies (BOCs) are immediately relieved of all other Computer Inquiry requirements with respect to wireline broadband Internet access services."
Crawford argued that the Bush F.C.C. hoped that deregulation would prompt greater competition in Internet access services but a "wave of mergers instead reduced it. Prices stayed high and speeds slow." She added that the F.C.C. "should state its case, re-label high-speed Internet access as a 'telecommunications service,' and take back the power to protect American consumers."
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