The Government is taking over the Internet!!

Or so they say… 

It seems no meeting or presentation involving any topic of communications policy can resist making a statement on the recent fallout of the Comcast vs. FCC court decision. When Chairman Genachowski announced his intentions to reclassify broadband under a carefully tailored Title II… the industry wasted no time in “letting the dogs out”. The rhetoric permeates every gathering of communications policy followers and is even appearing on TV ads!

Who ever thought the general public would be interested in how things are classified under The Communications Act of 1934?  It seems the industry wants to get them interested…. and at any price. The public relations firms are busy trying to retread the old standby lines of “a solution without a problem”, or that the suggested changes will reduce investment, cost jobs, destroy our economy or other catchy lines like “the government is taking over the Internet”.

After listening carefully, opinions surrounding the question of FCC reaffirming its authority over broadband seems to fall into four general camps:

1.       Those who want no regulation, whatsoever, on anything. Broadband should remain under Title I.

2.       Those who agree that some regulation may be valuable, but that Title II is not the right vehicle, and that Congress should be the one to decide what and if changes are needed.

3.       Those who agree that Title II, carefully tailored, solves the immediate problem by giving the FCC the ability to move ahead on several important broadband proposals (such as reforming the USF fund), and that there is room for discussion about future legislative action that could be a more permanent “fix”.  (Genachowski’s current proposal and the one EDUCAUSE is supporting.)

4.       Title II is the final and best answer.

Within these four camps there are as many disagreements about the law as there are lawyers in the District of Columbia. For those of us who just want the National Broadband Plan to be implemented as soon as possible, the choices depend on what will be most expedient. #1: would likely result in every move the FCC makes regarding broadband being challenged in court…. a slow, resource intensive process that would drag implementation out for years. #2: a Congressional fix could take 5-10 years (based on best guess and past experience). #3: would no doubt be challenged in Court, but is strongly defensible.  A win would free broadband from the continual “case by case” challenges of #1. #4: may be true, but closes the door to further debate and the idea of getting broadband its own regulatory home in an Article VII that would be more acceptable to all parties.

Genachowski has chosen a reasonable and legally sound way forward that could prevent the National Broadband Plan from becoming just one more good set of recommendations that will gather dust until it is overcome by time and events.