USTelecom's McCormick: Title II is "Bad, Bad, Bad"

Walter McCormick, president and CEO of USTelecom, planned to tell a Media Institute luncheon that the Federal Communications Commission's vote to reclassify Internet access service as a Title II telecommunications service subject to common carrier regulation was "bad policy -- bad for consumers, bad for innovation, bad for investment, [and] bad for American competitiveness in the world economy." He also says the FCC is making a "breathtaking" assertion of authority in trying to call "one thing a different thing" in order to exercise Internet regulatory powers Congress did not give it.

USTelecom has filed suit against the Feb. 26 decision, which was along party lines and strongly opposed by the Republicans on the panel, who shared McCormick's criticisms. McCormick reiterated that his association is okay with the Open Internet standards the FCC is espousing, and would support them if enshrined by Congress. What USTelecom, and the cable associations that have also sued, oppose strongly is reclassification under Title II. "The end does not justify the means," he said bluntly.