Stakeholder talks at FCC to end without a deal

Federal Communications Commission Chief of Staff Edward Lazarus said, "We have called off this round of stakeholder discussions. It has been productive on several fronts, but has not generated a robust framework to preserve the openness and freedom of the Internet - one that drives innovation, investment, free speech, and consumer choice. All options remain on the table as we continue to seek broad input on this vital issue."

The stakeholders, which included AT&T, Verizon, NCTA, Google, Skype and the Open Internet Coalition, had planned to continue meeting in the week ahead.

Gigi Sohn, president and co-founder of Public Knowledge, said "The path before the Federal Communications Commission is now perfectly clear. It must act to ensure that consumers are protected, that everyone can have access to broadband and that the Commission has the authority to ensure and open and non-discriminatory Internet. It can do that simply by acting on the dockets now pending before the Commission. We were concerned about the negotiations because they were largely restricted to the biggest industry players. The FCC now can use the comments and public views submitted to it as a basis for its decisions, as the Commission should have done all along."

Free Press Research Director S. Derek Turner said, "We welcome the FCC's decision to end its backroom meetings. Phones have been ringing off the hook and e-mail inboxes overflowing at the FCC, as an outraged public learned about the closed-door deal-making and saw the biggest players trying to carve up the Internet for themselves. We're relieved to see that the FCC apparently now finds dangerous side deals from companies like Verizon and Google to be distasteful and unproductive. Now the FCC must match the chairman's words with decisive actions. We need our leaders in Washington to make the tough decisions and take on the difficult task of standing up to entrenched interests and pushing forward strong rules that will protect Internet users everywhere. Today, Julius Genachowski and the FCC took a big step back from the brink and gave everyone who cares about the free and open Internet reason to be hopeful that they still might do the right thing."