Flash! The Federal Communications Commission does not have authority to regulate broadband services, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has ruled.
The FCC had fined Comcast in 2008 for subjecting BitTorrent to traffic-management practices. The federal court has reversed a lower court decision, ruling that the FCC does not have authority to regulate broadband, in essence. The full text of the ruling is not yet available, but the decision potentially sets in motion a new direction in broadband regulation by the FCC, which now must either get new legislative authority from the Congress to regulate broadband services, or must take a potentially-divisive alternative approach: attempting to regulate broadband services as "common carrier" services.
That would set off a nuclear war between the FCC and telecom and possibly cable companies, who would feel compelled to fight the change with every weapon at their disposal. Should the FCC ultimately prevail, the nation will face years of ruinous lawsuits, bringing new broadband investment to a grinding halt as private investment drys up.
The FCC can appeal the decision, but the big question now is whether it is willing to risk nuclear war with the telecom and cable industries.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
FCC Loses Net Neutrality Case on Appeal: No Authority to Regulate Broadband
Labels:
network neutrality
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Consumer Feedback on Smartphone AI Isn't That Helpful
It is a truism that consumers cannot envision what they never have seen, so perhaps it is not too surprising that artificial intelligence sm...
-
We have all repeatedly seen comparisons of equity value of hyperscale app providers compared to the value of connectivity providers, which s...
-
It really is surprising how often a Pareto distribution--the “80/20 rule--appears in business life, or in life, generally. Basically, the...
-
Is there a relationship between screen size and data consumption? One might think the answer clearly is “yes,” based on the difference bet...
1 comment:
The opinion. On Page 23, the Court notes that the FCC conceded that its reading would allow it to, e.g., subject firms to rate regulation.
Post a Comment