[opendtv] Commissioner Clyburn on regulating the Internet

From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 6 Jun 2010 18:24:56 -0500
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-298599A1.pdf

[ ... ]

Over the past few weeks I have heard a number of different theories as to why 
the Commission should not reclassify broadband connectivity as a 
"telecommunicationsservice." According to my crack research team, the three 
leading themes that appear to have emerged are: (1) the FCC should not embrace 
an old-style regulatory model created in the first-half of the 20th Century for 
monopoly voice networks; (2) there has been no so-called "market shift" that is 
allegedly necessary to trigger the ability for the Commission to reclassify; 
and (3) what I will spend most of my time addressing today, that 
reclassification as described by the Chairman would create a new and lethal 
"regulatory uncertainty."

The first criticism is easily dismissed. It is simply false on its face. It is 
clear from the Chairman's announcement that the entire point of his approach is 
to avoid applying any such old-world rules. Under the Chairman's view, without 
forbearance there is no reclassification. You cannot have one without the 
other. Think peanut butter and jelly. Salt and Pepper. Batman and Robin. You 
get the picture. The Commission is not seeking to employ burdensome rules for 
broadband from a day which has long passed. Rather, the Chairman is proposing 
that we re-establish the authority that the Commission and most observers 
thought we had as of the 5th of April, that bright and sunny day prior the D.C. 
Circuit's decision in the Comcast case. The proposal is thus not a power grab. 
It's not a return to days of yore.

[ ... ]
-----------------------------------------

Interesting. The FCC's push to reclassify the Internet access components of 
broadband Internet connections as "telecom service," rather than "information 
service," was a reaction to the DC Circuit's decision to allow Comcast to offer 
different priority levels for different Internet Protocol content.

It's kinda humorous, really. The cycnical will probably scoff at this 
explanation, saying that this adds insult to injury.

I'm still curious exactly how the legal minds will differntiate between IP 
service for, say, Comcast IPTV, and IP service used by people for actual 
Internet access. "Transmission" by the subscriber is required in both types of 
service.

Bert
 
 
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[opendtv] Commissioner Clyburn on regulating the Internet

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