Net Neutrality Statements

AEI-BROOKINGS ECONOMISTS' STATEMENT ON US BROADBAND POLICY
[SOURCE: AEI-Brookings Joint Center]
In this statement, a group of economists assembled by the AEI-Brookings Joint Center makes the following two recommendations to improve the competitive provision of broadband services. First, Congress should eliminate local franchising regulations, which serve as a barrier to new entry. Second, Congress and the Federal Communications Commission should make more spectrum available to private parties and allow them to use it as they see fit or trade their licenses in the market, so that spectrum will go to its highest-valued uses.
http://www.aei-brookings.org/admin/authorpdfs/page.php?id=1252

TIA ADOPTS PRINCIPLES ON NET NEUTRALITY ISSUES
[SOURCE: Telecommunications Industry Association]
On March 10, the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) sent a letter to the leadership of the United States Senate and House of Representatives respective Commerce Committees that sets forth principles, TIA Broadband Internet Access Connectivity Principles, which TIA believes should guide policy decisions regarding "net neutrality" or "connectivity" -- generally construed as the ability for consumers to connect any device or access any content through their Internet connection, so long as it does not harm or degrade the network. The two principles are: 1) A competitive broadband Internet access market offers consumers choices with respect to “connectivity” ­ that is, the ability to access any lawful Internet content, and use any device, application, or service over the public Internet ­ so long as they do not harm the network. 2) A competitive broadband Internet access market also gives facilities-based broadband Internet access providers competitive incentives to undertake risky, new investments, while precluding anticompetitive behavior against unaffiliated businesses.
http://www.tiaonline.org/business/media/press_releases/2006/PR06-23.cfm
* Broadband Internet Access Connectivity Principles
http://www.tiaonline.org/business/media/press_releases/2006/documents/TI...

CHAMBERS: NO NET-NEUTRALITY REGS
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]
In a March 9 letter to House Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton (R-TX) and the panel’s top Democrat, Rep. John Dingell (MI), Cisco Systems Inc. CEO John Chambers wrote, “Broadband Internet-access service providers should remain free to engage in pro-competitive network-management techniques to alleviate congestion, ameliorate capacity constraints and enable new services.” Chambers made it clear that while Internet-access providers had an obligation not to “block, degrade or impair” Web services, “innovation inside the network is just as important as innovation in services and devices connected to the Internet.”
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6315769.html?display=Breaking+News
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See also:
* Cisco: Arms Merchant For Net Neutrality
http://paulsblog.pulver.com/archives/2006/03/cisco_arms_merc.html