Where's Google on network neutrality, FCC role?

In the past week, Google has been noticeably absent from a growing debate about the future of a net neutrality policy being proposed by the Federal Communications Commission and the agency's role over broadband services.

Last week, a company spokesperson declined to comment on how it believes the FCC should proceed after a federal court threw the commission's role over broadband services into doubt. Google has been a leading corporate advocate of net neutrality rules at the FCC. The company is expected to say more over the following days but has in recent weeks sent mixed messages. On the one hand, media counsel Rick Whitt told the FCC's general counsel, Austin Schlick, that the agency needed to "build a complete legal and evidentiary record to confirm the agency's oversight authority, whether under Title I, Title II, Title VI, or other pertinent provisions." But in an ex parte filed with the commission on the March 22 meeting, Google doesn't go so far as to say it believes the agency should classify broadband as telecommunications service - a position public interest groups and President Obama's former economic adviser are advocating.