Sen Snowe pans FCC plan on broadband reclassification

Sen Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), the most vocal network neutrality supporter among GOP senators, has joined her colleagues in urging Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski not to change the regulatory classification of broadband service.

Sen Snowe said she supports the FCC's goal of keeping the Internet open and expanding broadband to all Americans, but that she sees "significant drawbacks" in Genachowski's proposal to change broadband's regulatory status. She said Genachowski's effort could create uncertainty that would "hamper or delay investment in much-needed broadband." Sen Snowe has repeatedly introduced network neutrality legislation designed to rein in how cable and phone companies can treat the traffic that rides over their networks. But she indicated she strongly opposes the reclassification effort, and said congressional action to streamline broadband policies is preferable to Genachowski's plan. Sen Snowe warned that putting broadband services under Title II of the 1934 Communications Act would place new technologies under regulatory burdens designed decades before the Internet was launched. "Title II includes numerous prescriptive regulatory obligations — close to 50 different sections — many of which were created in 1934 and do not properly capture technological advancements," Sen Snowe said. She said she supports the calls by the chairmen of key congressional committees to start work on updating the Communications Act.