Web Regulations: A View From the Broadband Camp

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[Commentary] During the Clinton administration the utility-style approach to regulating the Internet was first analyzed and rejected.

In a 1998 report to Congress, the Federal Communications Commission concluded that such an approach could “seriously curtail the regulatory freedom” that was “important to the healthy and competitive development” of the Internet. President Barack Obama has not called for utility-style regulations under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934, and just last year the White House expressly endorsed a restrained regulatory approach. Utility-style regulations would grant the government broad authority across the Internet and could open the door to price controls and a long list of other rules from a bygone era. Further, such regulations fail to achieve their proffered goal of banning the so-called “fast lanes” — hypothetical commercial arrangements that allegedly justify such an extreme change. Internet service providers support an open Internet. Today, there is no business case for these hypothetical “fast lanes,” and Internet providers do not support them. Rather than using anachronistic rules, the FCC can amply protect consumers and an open Internet (while promoting investment) with its existing authority.

[The authors are honorary co-chairmen of Broadband for America, a coalition of cable and telecom companies and organizations that support expansion of broadband]


Web Regulations: A View From the Broadband Camp