Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Verizon's Gamble on Internet Rules Might Have Backfired (BusinessWeek)


Verizon (VZ) set off a wide debate in January over how the federal government should regulate the Internet by winning a legal challenge to the existing rules. It now looks possible that the company’s victory has paved the way for its political defeat.
The Federal Communication Commission held the final roundtables on its net neutrality regulations on Tuesday, and FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler will presumably retreat to his office to finalize his proposal. He has said he wants to have new rules in place by the end of the year, meaning a vote could happen at the commission’s open meeting on Dec. 11.
Proponents of stronger rules have clearly won the battle for public opinion by turning the regulatory issue into a popularity contest: Netflix (NFLX) and John Oliver on one side, the cable industry on the other. The FCC received 3.7 million comments on the issue, sparked in no small part by Oliver’s savage takedown of the cable industryComcast (CMCSA) and Co. aren’t going to win a fight like that.
As if a debate over rules concerning Internet infrastructure wasn’t obscure enough, the real issue now is how the FCC claims legal authority to pursue those rules. Advocates of the most aggressive approach want the commission to reclassify broadband as a telecommunications service. This option, known as Title II, is what advocates see as the only way left open by the court to prohibit Internet providers from charging for preferential access to their customers. Opponents argue that the court actually did give the FCC the authority to pursue net neutrality rules without this reclassification. Confusingly, this side also believes the commission wouldn’t have the legal authority to ban such activity outright even after reclassification.
The Internet Association, a trade group whose members include Facebook (FB) andGoogle (GOOG), has remained noncommittal.
Marvin Ammori, a fellow at the New America Foundation who has been pushing for reclassification, says it’s a tossup as to which way Wheeler goes. Even getting to this point could be seen as a victory, given that Title II was politically untenable the last time the FCC wrote rules in 2010.

No comments:

Post a Comment