The FCC Noses Under the Broadband Internet Tent

[Commentary] A seemingly technical order circulating at the Federal Communications Commission is raising alarms among those who support a vibrant broadband Internet marketplace.

The order concerns the admittedly obscure topic of “special access” rate regulation. More on that in a minute, but here’s why it’s important. Over the last few years, the FCC has sent repeated signals of its intent to regulate broadband Internet providers any way that it can. This despite the fact that Congress has made clear for nearly two decades that the agency doesn’t have the authority to do so. This is not just another food fight over jurisdiction between the agency and Congress. Thanks to a 1996 law, the FCC is banned from extending its long-standing authority to set prices and micromanage the terms by which telephone providers do business with corporate and consumer customers into the very different business of Internet services. The FCC should get out of, not into, the business of regulating special access. That would be a helpful step in the direction of accelerating adoption of next-generation IP technologies that users desperately need. And that’s the goal everyone shares.