Internet authority of FCC in question; opponents of regulation speak up

As the Federal Communications Commission putters way at a full plate of issues related to broadband Internet services, the question being asked by analysts, lobbyists and public interest groups is whether the agency will make a move to more clearly stake a claim on those services.

Pressure is growing, but with little new insight into the thinking of FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, the industry is becoming more vocal in its opposition. The cable industry's top lobbyist, Kyle McSlarrow, wrote a letter to Genachowski on Monday, reiterating that a move to reclassify broadband as a Title II common carriage service is a bad idea. Besides, he said, the FCC can achieve at least one of its goals without doing so: retooling a phone subsidy program for educational purposes to also include broadband. "We believe it is unnecessary for the Commission to risk the adverse consequences of imposing Title II regulation on broadband Internet access service in order to promote the use of broadband for education," wrote McSlarrow, president of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association. He then launched into a analysis of telecom law that he thinks gives the agency authority to reform that program without a reclassification.