Internet Providers Strike Back on Net Neutrality

In a surprise to no one, Internet service providers warned federal regulators that treating broadband like phone lines will stunt future investments and service upgrades.

Twenty-eight CEOs representing companies which provide Internet service to a majority of Americans sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission warning the agency against adopting more regulations of broadband lines. AT&T’s Randall Stephenson, Verizon’s Lowell McAdam, Comcast’s Brian Roberts, Cox Communication’s Patrick Esser and Brian Sweeney of Cablevision were among the signatories.

The letter, meant to strike back at net neutrality activists who have been pressing for the re-regulation of broadband lines, offers few new arguments in the debate but is a reminder to regulators that Internet providers won’t allow re-regulation of their lines without a fight.

“Reclassification of broadband Internet access offerings as Title II -- telecommunications services -- would impose great costs, allowing unprecedented government micromanagement of all aspects of the Internet economy,” the companies warned. “An era of differentiation, innovation, and experimentation would be replaced with a series of ‘Government may I?’ requests from American entrepreneurs. That cannot be, and must not become, the US Internet of tomorrow.”