Phone companies want the FCC out of the Internet business

As phone companies retool their businesses for the Internet, they are calling on Washington to liberate them from their longtime overseer, the Federal Communications Commission.

Led by high-profile former regulators and lawmakers, telecom giants including Verizon, AT&T and Comcast have launched multiple efforts to shift regulation of their broadband businesses to other agencies that don’t have nearly as much power as the FCC. Jon Leibowitz, the former chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, will lobby House Republican and Democratic staff on behalf of those firms, urging lawmakers to take away some privacy powers from the FCC. Verizon Communications asked a federal appeals court to overturn FCC rules that require broadband providers to give equal treatment to all Internet services. AT&T’s head of lobbying, Jim Cicconi, also raised concerns about the FCC’s policing of broadband providers. In a speech, Cicconi questioned the FCC’s antitrust powers, saying the FTC and Justice Department have more expertise in the area of competition law. In total, the week’s flurry of attacks on the FCC brings fresh attention to an agency struggling to keep up with consumers who have cut phone lines for wireless and lightning-fast Internet services.