[1st-mile-nm] [Open-net-working-group] Fwd: Genachowski to reclassify portions of broadband to assert FCC authority over Internet access

[Jim Pickrell]

Hi,

I think this is the best news I have heard in a long time.

If internet is reclassified as a telecoms service, then the telcos become
common carriers (imagine that) and all the competitive rules created under
the telecom act apply to internet.

We're back in business.

This is what our supreme court case was about (Brand X V. FCC)

This is really big news, if they really do it.  It's the right plan, and
something I've been promoting for a long time.

For the record I'm against net neutrality because it's a bandaid to cure a
deeper problem of lack of competition.  Regulation cannot solve the net
neutrality problem but competition can, and reclassifying internet as
telecoms is a big step in the right direction.

Jim Pickrell
Brand X Internet


>
> Sounds like a way to guarantee full employment for attorneys to me  :-)
>
> Marianne Granoff
> Albuquerque, NM
>
>
>>Genachowski to reclassify portions of broadband to assert FCC
>>authority over Internet access
>>By Cecilia Kang
>>
>>
>><http://voices.washingtonpost.com/posttech/2010/05/fcc_chair_to_classify_portions.html>http://voices.washingtonpost.com/posttech/2010/05/fcc_chair_to_classify_portions.html
>>
>>The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission has decided to
>>reclassify portions of broadband as a telecommunications service,
>>allowing the FCC to carry out a net neutrality rule by putting the
>>companies that provide Internet access more concretely under its control.
>>
>>FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski will announce his decision on
>>Thursday, the agency said. Any proposal would be open to public
>>comments and then up for a vote from the five-member commission. The
>>decision comes after pressure Wednesday by key lawmakers and public
>>interest groups to reclassify broadband services, which were
>>deregulated as a service the agency had "ancillary" authority over.
>>
>>Sources said Genachowski appeared to have shifted his thinking from
>>late last week, when it looked like he was not inclined to make such
>>a move. Broadband service providers and the two Republican
>>commissioners have warned against reclassifying broadband. They said
>>doing so would create more regulatory burden from broadband
>>providers. One source with knowledge of the discussions in the FCC
>>this week said a letter from Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and Rep.
>>Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) supporting reclassification provided
>>political support for the FCC to shift Internet lines to a more
>>regulatory framework but with lighter regulations. The lawmakers
>>said if the FCC defined broadband as a telecommunications service,
>>it would have to strip Internet access providers of rules that apply
>>to phone companies. The move will be unpopular among broadband
>>service providers and Republicans ahead of elections this fall.
>>
>>An FCC official said in a statement that the agency's move will be
>>somewhere between deregulation, the state of broadband services
>>today, and a more regulatory approach.
>>
>>[snip]
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