[opendtv] FCC reclassifies broadband service as a telecom service
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 6 May 2010 15:58:21 -0500
http://www.broadband.gov/the-third-way-narrowly-tailored-broadband-framework-chairman-julius-genachowski.html
And Commissioners McDowell and Baker don't like it.
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-297948A1.pdf
This came to a head in the recent DC Circuit Court Comcast ruling, where
Comcast was determined to be okay in prioritizing its Internet pipe.
The new, supposedly "third way," is to narrowly define the broadband service
part of the pipe as a telecom service, subject to all the telecom FCC regs, and
leave the rest as an "information service," essentially unregulated.
Back in 2002, when Internet access was classified as an "information service"
and left largely unregulated, I thought this was patently unfair to the telecom
companies. Why? Because it seemed to me that if telephone service over an IP
pipe could be offered, then the company offering that telephone service should
be subject to all the same burdensome rules as the telecoms, including being
forced to provide, or at least certainly to help fund, the lifeline freebie.
If not that, then remove these burdens from the telecoms too. You want
competition? I agree. The let the telecoms also compete!
The activist FCC in this activist administration is expanding its regulatory
authority. I can already hear the howls of protest. But quite honestly, it was
either this decision, not a surprise, or deregulating the telecoms, which would
have been unthinkable in this climate.
Bert
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