Winning the network neutrality race

[Commentary] It now appears that the Federal Communications Commission is in a race with Congress on network neutrality policy. We already know that any attempt by the FCC to cram Internet access services into the Title II straightjacket designed for telephone service will be challenged in court. It’s also become clear that Congress is already developing a pre-emptive strike of its own to prevent the FCC from doing anything crazy with a bill making rounds that closely follows the approach dictated by President Barack Obama to the FCC by creating a new "Title X" in the Communications Act.

It’s a bit alarming that Congress is forced to take hasty action to restrain a runaway regulator who is supposed to be enacting the will of Congress. There’s a very good chance that a hastily enacted bill will get something wrong, perhaps something quite major. The best way forward would be to pass a simple bill that says the FCC shall refrain from reclassifying broadband under Title II unless Congress says otherwise. It should also say that the FCC shall have the power to sanction anti-competitive acts such as blocking and capricious throttling regardless of the regulatory status of broadband and leave the fine-tuning to the new Communications Act.