NCTA To FCC: No New Internet Rules

The Federal Communications Commission should approach the Internet with "vigilant restraint" rather than new regulations, says the National Cable & Telecommunications Association in comments on the FCC's proposed codification and expansion of the four openness principles in its Internet policy statement. That means not codifying and not expanding those principles, which NCTA said would be "unwarranted and counterproductive."

Replacing such historic restraint with regulation would discourage investment and innovation by Internet service providers and content and applications developers, the group argued. And if there are rules, NCTA said, they must be narrowly tailored, "prophylactic," and apply to all competing access providers--that would include wireless--and to other "gateways," which NCTA says would include content and applications providers and search engines like Google. NCTA says the wireless industry is already restricting access to content and applications via such "walled gardens" as the iPhone. The use of the term "gateways" is carefully chosen, since FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has said that networks were the "gatekeepers" in need of monitoring, while NCTA suggests there are more gates and keepers to mind if the FCC wants to get into that business. NCTA argues the commission's effort to "fundamentally alter the regulatory environment" for what NCTA says is already an open Internet is an odd approach.