The Hill's 'Wonderland' Assault On Network Neutrality

In approving the resolution to nullify the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) open Internet rules, the Republican members of the House Communications Subcommittee (no Democrats voted to block the FCC) said they didn't care if big companies imposed unfavorable conditions on start-ups and didn't care if there was nowhere small companies could go if they felt disadvantaged.

In today’s Wonderland that is the House, real-world experience means nothing.The conclusions have been drawn. Off with the head of the FCC! The traditional arguments and politics that usually govern House Republican votes mean nothing. At the Subcommittee hearing held just prior to the vote, A leading small businesswoman says openness is needed for the Internet. Never mind. Even big business, which usually has the Republicans at its beck and call, is largely going along with the FCC rules. No matter. Instead, there is the power-centric view favoring telecom carriers. One witness who runs a wireless ISP said it was OK to block Netflix from going to his customers. Another, a former Wall Street analyst who fears for the financial safety of the Big Telecom companies, asked what would happen if Google decided to “withhold its services from Verizon in Boston but continue to provide them to Comcast,” which would be a problem for Verizon retaining customers.

Wonderland, indeed.

Instead, there are bizarre interpretations in which FCC rules which an open Internet rule is seen as a hindrance to small business, rather than an arbiter to which small companies could turn if they thought they were being taken advantage of by super carriers. And so the circus will reconvene on the 15th, when the full House Commerce Committee will vote to repeal the FCC rule, and the later in the week the full House will do so as well. It will all be cloaked in the sanctimony of curbing government and helping small business, but nothing will be further from the truth. All it will do is put entrepreneurs further behind when the big carriers decide the time is right to put the pressure on and they start charging for preferential “fast lanes” that start-ups can't afford, or requirements they can't meet.