Models for the Internet's Future: Obama-Open or Julius-Closed

[Commentary] Apparently before the year is out, on Dec. 21, the Federal Communications Commission will issue rules to help shape the future of the Internet. These rules will decide how much control AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast will have over the websites you can visit and the online software you can use. This rule will impact the future of businesses, political actors, and people who now rely on an uncontrolled, open Internet.

There are at least two competing regulatory models for the FCC to adopt. One is a model being pushed by AT&T and Verizon -- also known as key opponents of network neutrality. This model derives from an attempted compromise offer from Congressman Henry Waxman to congressional Republicans. The proposal, never introduced, failed to gain Republican support -- but the FCC Chairman does not need congressional Republican support on a Commission that is majority Democrat. AT&T has been meeting repeatedly with top FCC staff to push this option, after spending five years and hundreds of millions in lobbying fees to oppose real network neutrality protections.

The other model comes from an agency controlled by President Obama, called the NTIA (or National Telecommunications and Information Administration), which is less well known than the FCC, an "independent" agency not under the president's direct control. Early in this administration, the Obama NTIA implemented tough rules to ensure Internet freedom on all private Internet networks under that agency's jurisdiction -- those networks were those receiving even a penny of stimulus money under the NTIA stimulus program.