benton's blog

Last month’s blockbuster ruling throwing out the key provisions of the Federal Communications Commission’s 2010 Network Neutrality rules justifies taking a hard look at Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

U.S. consumers are gradually abandoning the old, copper-based phone network. Around 2000, the U.S. had roughly 200 million traditional phone lines. By the start of this year, we had only 96 million. More than a third of adults use cellphones as their only form of phone service, up from just 5 percent a decade ago. Forty-two million households subscribed to voice-over-IP (VoIP) service in 2012, an increase of nearly 80 percent since 2008. In 2012, 43.5 percent of residential landlines were VoIP.

No single person can train all the math and science teachers we’ll need to equip our children for the future, or build the roads and networks and research labs that will bring new jobs and businesses to our shores. Now, more than ever, we must do these things together, as one nation and one people.
-- President Barack Obama, Second Inaugural Address

For consumers, the promise of the IP transition is new services and ways to collaborate and communicate that are better and more advanced than current basic telephone communications. High-quality networks across the country will ensure that people in all communities have the ability to create, invent, and use products and services that can enhance our world. Broad access to high speed IP networks is essential to making sure technology continues to evolve.