FCC Opens Net Neutrality Inquiry
The FCC voted 5-0 Thurs. to study network management practices among telecom and cable broadband providers although Comrs. Copps and Adelstein said the agency should have taken stronger action. The Commission approved a net neutrality “notice of inquiry” (NOI) asking how telecom companies manage networks, whether there’s evidence of discriminatory practices and whether the FCC should expand 4 non-binding net neutrality “principles” it wrote in 2005. The NOI asks if a 5th principle should be added to encourage “nondiscrimination,” FCC officials said at the meeting.
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“Putting out a notice of inquiry is not the way to sail boldly forward,” said Copps: History shows “if someone has the capacity to control something, they are going to try.” The FCC could guard the “genius of the Internet” in a rulemaking rather than merely gathering data, he said. Adelstein voted for the inquiry because it “focuses the spotlight” on net neutrality, but would have preferred “a more proactive approach such as opening a notice of proposed rulemaking,” he said.
An NOI isn’t unimportant; rather it’s “a starting point” that could lead to more action, said Comr. Tate. The agency shouldn’t rush, since Commission action can have a “stifling effect” and there isn’t evidence of discrimination, she said, urging that the agency not place “too much emphasis on finding a cure before the illness is shown.” Comr. McDowell engaged Wireline Bureau Chief Thomas Navin in a colloquy to show the absence of evidence of wrongdoing. McDowell asked Navin if any parties have petitioned for rulemaking and, when Navin said no, McDowell asked if any complaints had been filed. No, Navin said, adding the absence of examples of discrimination “is what made the NOI so difficult to write.”
The NOI will look at 5 areas, according to an FCC release: (1) How broadband providers manage their networks. (2) If they “charge different prices for different speeds or capabilities of service.” (3) Whether FCC policy should distinguish between content providers that charge end users for content and those that don’t. (4) Net management practices’ impact on consumers. (5) How “nondiscrimination” would be defined if the agency added a 5th net neutrality principle, and what it would say.
FCC Chmn. Martin said the agency isn’t “aware of any blocking situations,” but it’s useful to “collect a record about the current practices in the broadband marketplace.” One problem is differing definitions of “nondiscrimination,” he said.
“The opening of this inquiry should not be read as a step toward new rules,” Stanford Group analysts said in a report: “Given the views of the FCC’s Republican majority, we would not expect [the] action to lead to new FCC limits on cable and telco traffic prioritization service.” It’s doubtful new rules will come from the FCC or the Hill in the near future, but “the network neutrality battle remains intense,” the report said. “The Bells, cable operators and certain equipment vendors remain pitted against software/applications providers and grassroots groups.”
An NOI is essentially a “bureaucratic process [that] will delay by months, if not years, the crucial action needed to guarantee that consumers will always have access to an open and non-discriminatory Internet -- assuming that it issues a proposed rule after evaluating the information it receives from the inquiry,” said Public Knowledge. “Kicking the can down the road with… another study is a low tech but effective means of delaying action on a critical high tech question,” said Media Access Project Pres. Andrew Schwartzman. The FCC needs to move more quickly to keep the Internet open and innovative, he said.
The NOI will “move Internet debate from fiction to fact,” AT&T said. “The impact on investment, deployment and innovation in the broadband marketplace are just too important to gamble on hypothetical arguments that are not burdened by facts,” said AT&T Senior Vp Robert Quinn. Verizon expects the NOI to “show a healthy broadband marketplace in which consumers have access to a growing number of choices,” it said, adding that net neutrality “is trying to solve a problem that doesn’t exist.”
“This is a shrewd move by the Commission because it calls the bluff of those lobbying for broad new regulations,” Hands Off the Internet, a coalition that includes AT&T and Alcatel, said: “Google, Amazon and other pro-regulation companies will have to admit that the existing laws… are working.” The FCC should “closely monitor to Internet and be prepared to act quickly in the event of any abuses,” but shouldn’t move too quickly to impose more controls, said the Telecom Research & Action Center.