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FCC Proposes Net Neutrality to Broaden Internet Access
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May 6, 2010 4:11 p.m. EST
Topics: computing and information technology, politics, regulatory policy and organization, telecommunication service, business, economy, business and finance, United States
Tom Ramstack - AHN News Correspondent
Washington, DC, United States (AHN) - Internet customers would get much of the net neutrality they have sought for years for easier access to the Internet under a government policy announced Thursday.
The Federal Communications Commission proposed a policy to force some of the same rules on Internet service providers, or ISPs, that telephone companies must follow.
The rest of the Internet would remain largely unregulated, with prices and services determined by supply, demand and the corporate decisions of the service providers.
“Consumers do need basic protection against anticompetitive or otherwise unreasonable conduct by companies providing the broadband access service to which consumers subscribe for access to the Internet,” said FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski as he announced the policy.
Shares of cable companies fell on the New York Stock Exchange after Genachowski’s announcement.
The policy “creates potential long-term negative investment and competitive implications for major cable broadband providers,” wrote Standard & Poor’s financial analyst Tuna Amobi in a research note to investors.
The FCC is trying to carve out a middle ground with its new policy that combines suggestions from free market advocates and liberals who want more Internet regulation.
So far, the Internet has operated as a largely unregulated information service.
It also has drawn complaints from media organizations that say Internet service providers have too much discretion to decide which information their customers can access and how they get it.
They want the FCC to intervene by defining the ISPs, such as cable giant Comcast, as “common carriers.”
The common carrier designation comes with extensive regulations derived from the telephone industry.
Among the regulations, ISPs would be unable to exclude users from Internet services and Web sites without justifying their actions under FCC guidelines.
However, free market advocates say common carrier regulations would impede investment and development of the Internet by interfering with ISP business decisions.
Genachowski described his new policy as a “third way” for regulating the Internet.
The FCC would require ISPs to offer customers “greater transparency regarding the speeds, services and prices consumers receive, and ensuring that consumers – individuals as well as small businesses – are treated honestly and fairly.”
Other rules would empower “consumers to take control of their personal information so that they can use broadband communications without unknowingly sacrificing their privacy.”
The FCC also would follow policies to lower the costs of investment in the Internet. New rules would control rights-of-way over the Internet and protect users against cyber-attacks.
“It is widely accepted that the FCC needs backstop authority to prevent these companies from restricting lawful innovation or speech, or engaging in unfair practices, as well as the ability to develop policies aimed at connecting all Americans to broadband, including in rural areas,” Genachowski said.
The policy also follows suggestions by congressional Democrats who are crafting a national broadband plan that would give nearly everyone free access to high-speed Internet service.
A recent letter to Genachowski from Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) urged the FCC to “consider all viable options” to ensure net neutrality.
The policy also appears to set up a court battle like the one that ended with the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., ruling last month that the FCC lacked authority to tell ISPs how to manage customer access to their networks.
The appeals court threw out a lower court’s order the FCC obtained against Comcast.
The FCC obtained the order to prevent Comcast from slowing its customers’ access to BitTorrent, a file-sharing service.
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