Life For The FCC After Elimination of Title I Authority

[Commentary] Consensus is pretty strong that last week's oral argument on the Comcast/BitTorrent argument in front of the DC Circuit was an unmitigated disaster for the Federal Communications Commission. So much so that it appears that the D.C. Circuit may actually strip the FCC of any authority to "regulate the Internet."

While one would think Comcast would be cheering at the prospect of eliminating any watchdog over broadband whatsoever, they have been rather frantically backing away and insisting the FCC still has authority to impose network neutrality rules. Why the odd switch? Comcast, and most other major carriers, never wanted to eliminate FCC jurisdiction. Because while everyone wants the freedom of no rules, they also want some reassurance that if something goes wrong, someone has the authority to step in and fix it before it gets too out of hand.

While nobody likes getting a speeding ticket, most folks appreciate having a cop on the beat and rules of the road that tell you what side to drive on to avoid getting in a head on collision. The thought of no one having authority to step in if some major crisis hits, for example AT&T deciding it's tired of losing landline customers to Cox and refusing to complete its Voice Over IP calls, is rather scary to anyone who actually makes a living from having a stable, operating, interconnected global network. While an utterly unregulated Libertarian free-for-all appeals to think tank folks, it generally does not go down well with business folks.