FCC Opens Internet Proceedings

When it comes to regulating the Internet, Federal Communications Commission chair Julius Genachowski is if anything, relentless. In a vote along party lines—the two Republican members dissented—the FCC Thursday (June 17) opened a new proceeding to reclassifying the Internet as the regulatory equivalent of a phone service, despite a recent court decision that ruled the FCC lacked the authority to do it.Since 2002, the FCC has classified the Internet as an information service. By reclassifying the Internet under Title II of the 1934 Telecommunications Act, the FCC would be able to set net neutrality rules and regulate the Internet as laid out in the FCC's National Broadband Plan.The issue has become red hot on the Hill. Companies such as Google applaud an FCC work-around to reclassification. But cable and phone companies, not to mention 285 Congressional members on both sides of the aisle, would prefer the Internet remain unregulated and consider it a matter for Congress. Genachowski wrapped his latest move around the need for Internet broadband reform. "In view of the court decision....the FCC has an obligation to move forward with an open, constructive public-comment process to ask hard questions, to find a solution, and resolve the uncertainty that has been created," he said. "The Notice of Inquiry we adopt puts out for comment, even-handedly, several possible solutions to the challenge created by the court case."Congressional members that have already made clear their opposition to the FCC's proposal, reacted quickly the FCC's latest move, pointing out that an unregulated broadband market attracted 200 million new broadband subscribers over the past decade. A full 95 percent of the country has access to broadband.In a letter to the Rep. Henry Waxman, chair of the Committee on Energy and Commerce and Rep. Rick Boucher, chair of the Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet, Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.) and Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) called for hearings before the August recess on the legal validity and policy consequences of the FCC's reclassification proposal."The Committee must not abdicate its oversight responsibilities on a matter of this magnitude, particularly in light of the huge repercussions such as decision could have on jobs, investment, broadband deployment, and the U.S. economy," Barton and Stearns wrote.Other Congressional leaders have introduced legislation to prohibit the FCC from regulating the Internet without explicit Congressional authorization. "In the face of strong bi-partisan opposition, the FCC has decided that laws written to regulate Morse Code will now apply to megabytes. This is a bureaucratic overreach and powergrab of the first order. I am confident that my colleagues and I will act to overturn it," said Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), who along with Rep. JOhn Shimkus (R-Ill.) held a press conference Thursday pledging to stop the FCC's proposal. "It's bad policy, bad timing, and bad for jobs," Shimkus said. "Why destroy the only goose that's laying any golden egg in this economy?"

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FCC Opens Internet Proceedings

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