Unnecessary Collateral Damage From FCC Title II Internet Regulation

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[Commentary] The collateral damage is beginning to pile up from the Federal Communications Commission’s February decision to trigger Title II telephone utility regulation of the Internet.

Just as the FCC was not the final legal authority over Title II regulation of the monopoly telephone system, the FCC is not the final authority over what portions of the Internet ultimately will be captured by Title II regulations of “telecommunications.” That’s because any trial lawyer can sue to require that the FCC’s new re-definitions, like “telecommunications” to capture ISPs’ broadband service, be equally applied under the law to functionally similar services. The courts ultimately will decide much of this, creating potential litigation uncertainty for most every player in the Internet ecosystem.

If broadband is now telecommunications, IP addresses are now the legal equivalent of a phone number, and the Internet itself is now the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) per the FCC’s Internet Order, then are any apps that involve telecommunications of any kind, such as instant messaging, VoIP, or video communications etc., Title II telecommunications as well? Are cloud service telecommunications analogous to broadband telecommunications? Are over the top video streaming providers like Netflix, Google-YouTube, Amazon, etc. offering the functional equivalent of a Title II regulated telecommunications service?

Cleland is President of Precursor LLC, a research consultancy for Fortune 500 companies]


Unnecessary Collateral Damage From FCC Title II Internet Regulation