FCC Leaning Against Title II Regulation of Broadband Access

Julius Genachowski, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, apparently now is leaning away from any attempt to re-regulate broadband access as a common carrier service, a move that would have set off a political firestorm.

The Washington Post reports that the chairman "is leaning" toward keeping in place the current regulatory framework for broadband services but making some changes that would still bolster the FCC's chances of overseeing some broadband policies.

The sources said Genachowski thinks "reclassifying" broadband to allow for more regulation would be overly burdensome on carriers and would deter investment, a belief likely bolstered by the constant criticism Verizon Communications has taken from investors who have questioned Verizon's investment in fiber-to-the-home almost every step of the way.

Congress could "remedy" the situation by passing new legislation directing the FCC to take action along the lines of reclassifying broadband access as a common carrier service, but prospects for any such legislation are unclear.

Aside from the historic objections cable and telco industry segments have had to common carrier regulation of data services, both industries are widely expected to oppose in the strongest possible way any moves to limit their ability to innovate in the area of services and features for broadband services, especially any moves to prohibit any forms of quality of service features.

"Network neutrality" rules that prohibit any form of packet discrimination would effectively prevent the creation of QoS features guaranteeing video or voice performance, for example, even if those are features end users actually want.

Some policy advocates fear that Internet access providers will not voluntarily and adequately police themselves, but end user pressure has proven to be quite effective in the applications space, and even firms that have attempted some forms of network management have voluntarily agreed not to use some forms of management that essentially
"block" legal applications.

That isn't to argue that there are no dangers, but simply that market pressure and end user outrage have so far proven to be effective inhibitors of anti-competitive behavior. Even without title II common carrier regulation, the amount of end user and policy attention now paid to anti-competitive behavior in the Internet business would effectively encourage responsible ISP behavior.

Proponents opposed to "over-regulating" the developing business have argued that any abuses that do arise can be dealt with as they potentially occur, and that this is preferable to regulating in advance, or that the proper venue is the Federal Trade Commission or Justice Department, in any case.

Aside from all those issues, nobody really believes that anything but growth lies ahead for the broadband access business. 'More bandwidth" does not solve all problems, but does solve many of the concerns users or policy advocates might have about continued progress on the bandwidth front.

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