Tag: reclassification

Archaic Telecom

Google Puts its Foot Down on Title II

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The FCC just posted an ex parte filing from Google in which the search giant makes it feelings on net neutrality and Title II reclassification crystal clear. Here’s the money quote:

“The FCC needs to assert affirmative oversight and enforcement authority regarding the broadband services sector, much as the U.S. Federal Trade Commission uses its more general jurisdiction to oversee other industry sectors, such as providers of Internet applications and content. In that regard, I discussed how, in light of the Comcast decision, continued use of Title I ‘ancillary’ authority to oversee the broadband sector likely would expose the agency needlessly to repeated significant litigation risks affecting a wide range of broadband- related policy priorities. ” Continue reading
Archaic Telecom

FCC Notice of Inquiry on Broadband Reclassification

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Let the games begin and ex parte filings flow! The FCC formally opened its proceedings yesterday on the classification of broadband Internet.   The agency released a 64 page, footnote-chocked Notice of Inquiry, Framework for Broadband Internet Service, to set this round in motion.

The document nicely explains the recent  history that led to the agency’s third-way approach and the policy considerations at stake (universal service, privacy, public safety).  I reviewed parts of this thing, especially the section covering recent legal history, and it all stands as a sobering reminder of how the FCC (under Chairman Powell) went completely off-course in 2002.

In the FCC’s 2002 Declaratory Ruling that cable modem was an information service, it called broadband cable a  “single, integrated service that enables the subscriber to utilize Internet access service,” and that telecommunications component (the transmission part) was “not . . . separable from the data processing capabilities of the service.”

Even in 2002 that clearly wasn’t the case.Continue reading

Archaic Telecom

FCC’s Third Way Approach

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As expected, the FCC has decided to reclassify Internet broadband as a telecommunications service. It’s approach is to apply Title II common carrier requirements to Internet broadband, but forbear most of the provisions except six, those associated with denial of service and unreasonable practices (in other words, net neutrality).

You can read the legal theory behind the reclassification and forbearance here.

Updated: After reading through the legal reasoning behind the FCC decision, I was nodding in agreement with some of the ideas being explored. One is that different parts of Internet communications require separate regulatory approaches.Continue reading