Net Neutrality: Industry Reactions to New FCC Push

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski wants to make net neutrality law and, as the discussion over an open Internet attracts strong reactions, AT&T Inc. and Google Inc. are adding fuel to the fire. AT&T is accusing Google of violating the FCC’s four net neutrality principles, while Google calls the allegations a red herring to pull attention away from the real problem of a chaotic intercarrier compensation regime.

AT&T wants the FCC to investigate the matter, just as Genachowski works to codify the FCC’s existing principles – guidelines affirming that consumers must be able to access lawful Internet content, applications and services and attach non-harmful devices to the network – and expand them. Genachowski wants to apply those principles to wireless networks and, further, add verbiage to prevent ISPs from discriminating against certain Internet content or applications, while allowing for reasonable network management. He also wants to ensure Internet access providers are transparent about their network management.

A short time after Genachowski announced his intent last week, people spun into action. One lawmaker, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, went so far as to immediately insert an amendment into an unrelated appropriations bill; the addition would have blocked FCC funding for implementing net neutrality regulations.

However, Hutchison’s efforts were short-lived. Genachowski’s staff met with Hutchison and the other five Republicans who supported her amendment. That meeting persuaded the lawmakers to withdraw the amendment and continue talking with the FCC.

Meanwhile, other groups and companies got down to the business of distributing their opinions. Here are some snapshots of industry reaction:

"We will proceed with an open mind, but we also believe the bar needs to be set very high when it comes to additional government interventions that could potentially disrupt the tremendous innovation and investment that have defined U.S. broadband for the past several years under the FCC’s existing open Internet principles.”
--Walter McCormick, president and CEO of USTelecom

“Litigation is virtually guaranteed, regardless of the net neutrality policy adopted by the FCC. ... A key question is whether any new FCC net neutrality rule is legally sustainable, given that agency oversight of the highly deregulated Internet is limited to ancillary legal jurisdiction. Genachowski said the FCC would enforce a new net neutrality policy on a fact-specific, case by case basis.”
--Jeffrey Silva, senior policy director, telecommunications, media and technology, for investment bank Medley Global Advisors

"As a justification for the adoption of rules, the chairman suggested that one reason for concern ‘has to do with limited competition among service providers.’ This is at the core of our concerns. Unlike the other platforms that would be subject to the rules, the wireless industry is extremely competitive, extremely innovative, and extremely personal. How do the rules apply to the single-purpose Amazon Kindle? How does it apply to Google’s efforts to cache content to provide a better consumer experience? How about the efforts from Apple and Android, BlackBerry and Nokia, Firefly and others to differentiate the products and services they develop for consumers? Should all product and service offerings be the same?"
--Chris Guttman-McCabe, vice president of regulatory affairs for CTIA-The Wireless Association

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