Willner: Title II Will Stunt Broadband Funding

Michael Willner, president and CEO of Penthera and cable operator GreatLand Connections, opened up NewBay Media’s NYC Television Week by firing away at President Obama’s push toward stricter regulation of the Internet.

He said any movement toward Title II reclassification would be “one of the worst policy decisions” not only for the cable and wireless industries, but for consumers. He envisions a repeat of what happened 20-plus years ago after the Cable Act was enacted in 1992. At that time, cable industry was rebuilding its plant, putting in fiber optics to lay the groundwork for the Internet, which no one at that time could fully imagine would become such an integral part of daily existence. With the Cable Act, Willner said, the investment community “turned off the tap.” In turn, capacity slowed as did the formation of programming networks. “Everything came to a screeching halt,” he said. During this slowdown, Western Europe pushed ahead in fortifying its infrastructure and “we fell behind as a country.” Willner said that with the “heavy hand of Title II, we’re asking for the same kind of result. The definition of insanity is to do the same thing and expect a different result…We’re teetering toward a 21st Century repeat of 1992 in an even more competitive world.”