If the last week has taught us anything, it's that everyone -- and we do mean everyone -- seems to have an opinion on FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski's plan to enhance the Commission's so-called network neutrality rules. Here are links to a few recent CongressDaily stories on the subject (subscription required).
Divided FCC OKs Proposed Neutrality Rules (Oct. 22)
Genachowski Revises Proposed Rules In Nod To Critics (Oct. 22)
FCC Chairman Drafts Neutrality Rules Exempting Google (Oct. 21)
Group Targets Lawmakers On Net Neutrality (Oct. 21)
Executives, Trade Group Take Sides On Pending FCC Vote (Oct. 20)
Google and Verizon brought out the big guns in anticipation of Thursday's FCC meeting to begin discussing an expansion of the Commission's so-called network neutrality rules. Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam wrote a post on the companies' policy blogs detailing the Internet and innovation areas they agree upon. Some snippets from Wednesday's can't-we-all-just-get-along themed message:
"The Internet revolution has been people powered from the very beginning, and should remain so. The minute that anyone, whether from government or the private sector, starts to control how people use the Internet, it is the beginning of the end."
"Advanced and open networks are essential to the future development of the Web. Policies that continue to provide incentives for investment and innovation are a vital part of the debate we are now beginning."
"The FCC's existing wireline broadband principles make clear that users are in charge of all aspects of their Internet experience--from access to apps and content. So we think it makes sense for the Commission to establish that these existing principles are enforceable, and implement them on a case-by-case basis."
Read their full post on Google's blog here and Verizon's here.
The Information Technology Industry Council, which sat on the sidelines three years ago as the network neutrality battle raged on Capitol Hill, is poised to enter the fray as the FCC begins to take up the issue. The trade group that represents Apple, Cisco, Dell, eBay, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel and other high-tech firms plans to meet with all of its members next week and officials anticipate a vote in favor of ITI getting engaged in the debate. It is unclear how the vote will turn out or what the vote will be on since details of the FCC's notice of proposed rulemaking won't be revealed until Thursday.
A paper released this week by Information Technology and Innovation Foundation President Robert Atkinson that shows some in the tech community have serious concerns about the direction that the FCC is headed could be an indicator of how ITI weighs in. ITI and ITIF are co-located and ITI helped found ITIF four years ago. Atkinson's three page memo (PDF) states that regardless of how the FCC votes, making the right decision on net neutrality depends on careful and reasoned analysis. He lays out 10 key questions he believes are critical to answer accurately before any regulatory decisions are made.
Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg took issue Wednesday with proponents of FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski's so-called network neutrality plan who have suggested that network providers like Verizon and content providers like Google, Amazon and others occupy fundamentally different parts of the Internet ecosystem. The view that the Web is made up of "dumb pipes" on the one hand and "smart applications" on the other is a mistake, he told an industry conference in Chicago. "It fundamentally misreads how innovation happens in a dynamic and collaborative industry," he added.
"Our industry has shown that we can work with the government as well as our partners and competitors to achieve mutually desirable goals of more competition, consumer choice and broadband expansion. But we can't achieve these ends if we interrupt the flow of private capital and delay the cascading productivity impacts of a more networked world," Seidenberg said in a keynote at SUPERCOMM 2009 on the eve of a critical FCC meeting where commissioners will start crafting so-called network neutrality rules. He also warned against "pitting network providers and applications developers against each other in a zero-sum game."
Meanwhile, an open letter signed by 30 business investors in technology companies was sent today to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski on Wednesday. Prominent venture capitalists --including five of the top ten ranked investors on the 2009 Forbes "Midas List" - support "the Commission's ongoing efforts to adopt rules to safeguard the open Internet." The proposal will drive "investment, job creation, and consumer welfare," they wrote.
Read more about Genachowski's game plan and Thursday's Commission meeting in CongressDaily AM Edition here (subscription required).
House Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee member Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., on Tuesday took a swipe at an ongoing push by the Obama administration and high-tech companies to beef up so-called network neutrality rules at the FCC, describing effort as "the fairness doctrine for the Internet." The Commission rescinded that doctrine, which required TV and radio broadcasters to air opposing political viewpoints, in 1987.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said in September that he does not intend to revive the fairness doctrine amid concerns raised by Republicans and conservative talk radio hosts. He is, however, championing a controversial plan to consider new rules aimed at preserving and promoting consumers' unfettered access to Web content. The FCC will begin its work on that topic Thursday.
President Obama is facing pressure from House Minority Leader John Boehner and Minority Whip Eric Cantor over FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski's plan to prevent telecommunications and cable broadband providers from blocking or degrading competing content and services on the Internet. In a Friday letter, the pair wrote that the Commission should direct its energy on developing the national broadband plan, which is due to Congress in February.
"We believe that network neutrality regulations would actually thwart further broadband investment and availability, and that a well-reasoned broadband plan would confirm our view," Boehner and Cantor wrote. "To hastily begin the process of adopting network neutrality rules months before issuing such a plan implies that politics are driving the FCC's decision-making process." The FCC is slated to vote on the proposed net neutrality rules at its Oct. 22 meeting.
Gigi Sohn, president of Public Knowledge and a proponent of Genachowski's effort, called it "truly unfortunate" that the House Republican leadership has tried to slow what she called "the greatest economic engine for job creativity and innovation ever created." The FCC's aim is to establish a set of principles to preserve an open Internet for all Americans, she said. "Net neutrality is simply a guarantee of fairness, a prohibition on discrimination," Sohn added.
Reps. Edward Markey, D-Mass., and Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., reprised the congressional push for a so-called "network neutrality" mandate on Friday by introducing legislation that would prevent Internet service providers such as telephone and cable companies from interfering with Web content that passes through their pipelines. The bill would essentially bar ISPs from using the claim of network management to impose their own priorities on data traffic, based on financial arrangements or other considerations.
Open Internet groups cheered the move. Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn said the measure would "bring online certainty to millions of Internet users and companies" and Ben Scott, policy director for Free Press, said the legislation would "help to ensure that the public -- not big phone and cable companies -- controls the fate of the Internet." Prior attempts at legislating in this arena have been met with fierce lobbying for and against the measures but they ultimately failed.
U.S. Telecom Association President Walter McCormick called the bill's introduction "a disappointing but not unexpected development." He said the language "would not preserve Internet freedom, but would instead lead to a government-managed Internet." President Obama, however, has repeatedly called for net neutrality and new FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski plans to fortify the agency's Internet guidelines -- which focus on protecting consumer rights -- by adding a fifth principle explicitly barring discriminatory behavior by broadband providers.
Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) began his questioning of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor (see video above) by raising questions about Internet service providers' ability to speed up and slow down Web traffic. He asked whether there is a "compelling First Amendment interest in ensuring this can't happen and the Internet stays open and accessible." Sotomayor responded that the Internet is "revolutionary" and it affects all areas of the economy and society. But the role of the court is never to make the policy. It's to wait until Congress acts," she added.
A new tool for high-tech researchers to deploy Internet measurement tools and provide the public with information about their broadband connections launched Wednesday on the heels of congressional interest over the extent to which high-speed Internet providers can prioritize traffic on their networks. The announcement came as Cox Communications unveiled a pilot project to prioritize certain Web content that it believes to be time-sensitive. Cable giant Comcast was reprimanded by the FCC last year for the way it managed Internet traffic and that battle is still playing out in court. Meanwhile, calls for "network neutrality" have led to ample legislation and lobbying.
Over the next year, Google will provide researchers brought together by the New America Foundation with 36 servers in 12 locations in the U.S. and Europe. All data collected by the Measurement Lab (M-Lab) will be made publicly available for other researchers to build on, officials said at an afternoon briefing sponsored by the foundation's Open Technology Institute and the PlanetLab Consortium. At the moment, M-Lab has "three servers at an undisclosed location in Mountain View," said Sascha Meinrath, research director of New America's Wireless Future Program. In addition to Google, organizers want to bring in more industry players who share the goal of making the Internet more transparent, he said.
Google Chief Internet Evangelist Vint Cerf, who also spoke at the event, said Internet researchers have had trouble figuring out how the network truly works since the termination of a program at the National Science Foundation in 1995. Under that regime, all data about network performance was made available to researchers but since that time, much of the information has been labeled proprietary and closely guarded by pipeline providers, he said. Cerf, who is widely cited as the "Father of the Internet," said the M-Lab components are "geeky in the extreme" and will usher in a new era in collecting and analyzing Internet data. "We're still a long way from having all the tools needed," he added. Read more from Cerf here and read more about the M-Lab here.
Google telecom and media counsel Richard Whitt and a watchdog group that favors so-called "network neutrality" legislation fired back at a story in Monday's Wall Street Journal that Whitt argued was "based on a misunderstanding of the way in which the open Internet works." The article alleges that the Internet giant, which has been a leading voice for equal access for all content online providers, has approached major broadband providers with a proposal to create a fast lane for its own content.
In a late night blog post, Whitt said Google "remains strongly committed to the principle of net neutrality." He clarified that Google has offered to "colocate" caching servers within broadband providers' own facilities, which would reduce the provider's bandwidth costs since the same video wouldn't have to be transmitted multiple times. All of the collocation deals with broadband providers are non-exclusive, meaning any other entity could employ similar arrangements, Whitt said, adding that none require or encourage that Google traffic be treated with higher priority than other traffic.
Free Press Executive Director Josh Silver issued a statement saying he was skeptical that Google is "engaged in a nefarious plot to undermine the open Internet." Net neutrality is bigger than Google or any single company, Silver said, expressing optimism that Internet anti-discrimination legislation will resurface in 2009 with the support of President-elect Barack Obama. Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn added "the effort to achieve an open and non-discriminatory Internet is alive and well in Washington."
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