Public Interest Groups Express Disappointment in Congressional Letter on Net Neutrality

Nearly two dozen public interest organizations from more than twelve states sent a letter to Congress, urging Members to support the Network Neutrality proceeding at the Federal Communications Commission. The groups expressed disappointment with an earlier Congressional statement, signed by Members of Congress from their states, that expressed a lack of support for net neutrality rules at the FCC. The groups write that the Congressional letter "implies that network neutrality rules may dissuade Internet Service Providers from upgrading or deploying high-speed networks. Cable and phone companies that would rather restrict consumer usage to avoid necessary investments in broadband deployment and capacity have often repeated this argument. Put another way, ISPs want to "manage" Internet traffic in a way that forces U.S. consumers to live with networks that fail to meet our growing needs. We would rather see U.S. broadband providers upgrade their networks so there would be no need to throttle bandwidth users in a discriminatory fashion."