UPDATED: FCC Resumes Closed-Door Sessions with Telecom Lobbyists
July 14, 2010
| 4:35 PM
They're at it again behind closed doors. Powerful telecommunications industry lobbyists were back at the FCC Tuesday for another round of unannounced meetings with top agency officials to discuss a possible legislative deal on network neutrality.
Major telecom and cable companies have indicated a willingness to cede ground on net neutrality if the Democratic-led FCC drops plans to regulate broadband as a public utility. Read our previous coverage here (subscription required)
In the room were some of the industry's biggest guns: AT&T's Jim Cicconi, Verizon's Tom Tauke and Kyle McSlarrow, head of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, along with three of Chairman Julius Genachowski's senior advisers.
According to the public disclosure of the meeting, no consumer advocates participated. Groups such as the media watchdog Free Press have complained loudly about their exclusion from the negotiating process.
UPDATE: Under pressure from critics, the FCC has reversed course on its public disclosure requirements for these meetings. The agency originally argued that while no disclosure was required, it would post summaries of the meetings anyway on its related broadband.gov website. Now, the commission says it has been requiring formal "ex parte" disclosures that are searchable on its main site.
The parties explored possible legislative language banning discriminatory online behavior by broadband providers - an idea these and other industry lobbyists strongly opposed until now.
They also discussed applying "some" aspects of the FCC's net neutrality principles to wireless carriers. Watchdogs insist all of the principles should apply.
House Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., has been holding similar meetings with industry stakeholders on a parallel congressional track. Read our coverage here. (subscription required)
For a window into the world of backroom dealmaking in Washington, click here
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