The tech industry inundated federal regulators Thursday with pleas for and against new rules limiting what ISPs can do with internet traffic.
The pleadings were a final attempt to shape upcoming net-neutrality regulations, whose broad outlines were announced by the FCC in October. Advocates say that without the rules ISPs will start monkeying with net traffic, stifling innovation. Wireless carriers and regulation foes say the market will prevent such abuses and new rules will dry up capital investment.
The FCC wants to take the current guidelines that force DSL and cable internet providers to let you use the devices, applications and web services you prefer, and apply them to all broadband connections. They also want to expand the rules to make it clear that broadband providers can't find ways to make their bundled video and phone services go faster than their competitors, and force companies to tell users how they manage their network.
Skype, the online peer-to-peer phone company, supports the new rules, which is unsurprising, because they have their share of carriers blocking the service. Skype, which has long pushed to apply the landline rules to wireless connections, sees regulations as an extension of the Carterfone ruling in the late '60s that forced AT&T to open its network to devices made by other companies. That eventually led to the answering machine, the fax machine and the modem — and thus the internet itself.
Not surprisingly, the wireless carriers see it differently and say competition, not regulation, is the way to keep the airwaves open.
"Quite simply, we believe that these rules are inappropriate for wireless broadband networks and unnecessary to ensure that wireless consumers continue to enjoy the open internet," Wireless Association CEO Steve Largent said in a press release. "All elements of the wireless ecosystem are flourishing. As Americans continue to adopt mobile broadband at a rapid pace, our members are investing billions of dollars every year to deliver wireless internet across the country. This is a model that is working for consumers, and regulation is not needed."
Meanwhile, public interest groups, Hollywood, concerned citizens, individual carriers and tech-industry giants like Google also weighed in, each with their own ideas of what the rules could do for them.
Verizon and Google, however, took time from filing their own individual briefs to file a joint brief outlining their agreements on open-internet principles. The two clashed in 2008 over whether carriers who wanted to rent new spectrum from the government in the 700-MHz spectrum auction would have to respect net-neutrality rules similar to the ones now being proposed to cover all spectrum for broadband.
The joint statement said:
The FCC will eventually vote to adopt some of its rules, and the real fight is over details. Regardless, however, the rules will likely prompt a fight in Congress and almost inevitably, they will be challenged in the courts. The FCC already seems to be losing a court fight over its attempt to enforce the existing rules against Comcast for secretly blocking its customers from using peer-to-peer software.
With this new rulemaking process, the FCC hopes to prop up its authority and deliver on Obama's campaign promises to institute net neutrality, but the telecom industry will not take new regulation lightly.
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