Net Neutrality Compromise Being Weighed by U.S. Lawmakers
FCC chairman Julius Genachowski
Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
Federal Communications Commission, FCC, chairman Julius Genachowski has said he may claim power using rules written for monopoly telephone service in the 20th century. Companies led by AT&T and Verizon oppose such action.
Federal Communications Commission, FCC, chairman Julius Genachowski has said he may claim power using rules written for monopoly telephone service in the 20th century. Companies led by AT&T and Verizon oppose such action. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
U.S. regulators would get authority over Internet-traffic practices of companies such as AT&T Inc. and Comcast Corp. for two years in a plan being weighed by congressional staff, two people involved with the talks said.
Legislation letting the Federal Communications Commission regulate Internet service providers was being discussed with industry representatives yesterday by aides to Representative Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, according to the people, who asked not to be identified discussing the private talks.
The two years would give the FCC and Congress time to permanently resolve a long-running fight over rules on net neutrality. Internet-service providers would be barred under such regulations from selectively blocking or slowing content going to subscribers while favoring their own offerings and those of business partners.
“I’m pleased that Chairman Waxman and the other members of Congress who are involved are making a real effort,” FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said today at a news conference in Washington. “I admire and I appreciate the effort and I hope it succeeds.”
The compromise would let the FCC claim authority over Web service delivered over wires, such as by cable and fiber-optic lines, while allowing the agency to write less-stringent rules for wireless services such as mobile phones, the people said.
Google, Verizon
Google, operator of the most-used Internet search engine, and Verizon Communications Inc., the second-largest U.S. phone company after AT&T, proposed in August that providers of wired Internet service be barred from unreasonably slowing or speeding Web content. Their proposal contained two exemptions: It wouldn’t apply to unspecified “additional services” developed in the future or to Internet service over wireless devices.
Excluding wireless is an approach “that I don’t think works,” Genachowski said.
“We need to find appropriate protections for wireless,” Genachowski said today on Bloomberg Television. “When people access the Internet from wireless devices they should be accessing a free and open Internet.”
The FCC’s authority has been in question since a federal court in April said the agency lacked authority to censure Comcast for its Web practices. Genachowski has said he may claim power using rules written for monopoly telephone service in the 20th century. Companies led by AT&T and Verizon oppose such action.
Sony, Amazon
Any compromise would need to satisfy service providers including the telephone companies, Comcast and Time Warner Cable Inc., and Internet and technology companies such as Amazon.com Inc. and Sony Corp., Rebecca Arbogast and David Kaut, analysts with Stifel Nicolaus & Co., said in a Sept. 21 note to investors.
It will be difficult “to thread such a narrow needle” before lawmakers leave Washington to campaign for the Nov. 2 election, perhaps as early as next week, Arbogast and Kaut said in their note. Efforts could continue after the election, “but the momentum may be lost,” they said.
Karen Lightfoot, a spokeswoman for Waxman, a California Democrat, didn’t reply to telephone and e-mail inquiries.
To contact the reporter on this story: Todd Shields in Washington at tshields3@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Larry Liebert at lliebert@bloomberg.net.
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