Communications service providers with a stake in the Net neutrality debate will be able to have their say on the most contentious issues raised by the recent Verizon-Google proposal, now that the FCC said it will seek public comment on them.
The agency said it wants input on “two under-developed issues in the open Internet proceeding": first, how to allow cable and phone operators to provide premium managed services while protecting the public Web; and second, whether to apply Net neutrality rules to wireless. In the proposal they submitted a few weeks ago, Google and Verizon told the FCC that Net neutrality concerns should not impact either one of those areas. Now the FCC, which recently backtracked and shut down the so-called "closed-doors meetings" it had previously scheduled on Net neutrality and regulatory issues, said it wants the industry’s opinion.
Reaction to the FCC’s notice was swift. Walter McCormick, president and CEO of USTelecom, the association that represents carriers including Verizon, praised the new development, calling it “pragmatic and wholly consistent" with FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s “commitment to employ a data-driven approach to regulation."
And, McCormick added, “since there are no imminent threats to the open and robust Internet that consumers enjoy today, it is prudent for the chairman to make sure that the Commission proceeds in a way that is fully informed, measured and avoids doing any harm to this dynamic sector."
Public interest groups, on the other hand, sent up a collective howl. It’s time for action, not more talk, they said.
“The commission asks the same questions time and time again about wireless broadband services and specialized services, instead of providing basic answers on the basis of the robust record it already has compiled," said Matt Wood, associate director of Media Access Project.
Free Press representatives agreed. The FCC must “stop writing notices and start making clear rules," said research director S. Derek Turner. “The phone and cable companies have shown us what the Internet will look like if they are allowed to write their own rules and build a two-tiered Internet with fast and slow lanes and zero protections on mobile broadband. We don’t need more questions from the FCC, we need more answers."
