Understanding FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler Statement On Peering

[Commentary] At the press conference following the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) March 31 Open Meeting, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler made the following observation: “Interconnection is part of the Network Compact. ‘Peering’ is just a $3.50 word for interconnection.” Personally, I think most people are totally misreading this.

Chairman Wheeler’s statements make it look more likely to me that the FCC will start looking closely at the Internet peering market, not less likely, especially as part of the Comcast/Time Warner Cable deal.

l rant at considerable length that (a) Chairman Wheeler is right, this is not a “network neutrality” issue, but the same goddam interconnection issue that we have struggled with for more than a hundred years in every networked industry from railroads to electricity to broadband; (b) The FCC needs to actually look at this and study it and understand how the market works before it makes any decisions on what to do; and, (c) While Chairman Wheeler is not saying -- in any way, shape or form -- that he actually plans to do anything before he has real information on which to base a decision, he is signaling -- for anyone actually paying attention -- that he is, in fact, going to actually look at this as part of his overall transition of the agency around his “Fourth Network Revolution” and “Network Compact” ideas.