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 |  Subject: Good News: ISPs Give FCC Cold Shoulder at Internet Hearing  Fri Apr 18, 2008 4:04 am | |
| The nation's major Internet service providers were noticeably absent Thursday from an FCC-sponsored, network management hearing during which Republican and Democratic commissioners clashed on how best to ensure the open nature of the Internet.
"It is important that we hear from a variety of different folks," FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said during the event, which was held at Stanford Law School and Web cast over the Internet.
Comcast , AT&T, Time Warner Cable, and cable research company CableLabs were all invited to participate several weeks ago, but declined, Martin said. The commission again reached out to Comcast after the announcement this week that it would develop a P2P bill of rights with Pando Networks, but they again sent their regrets, he said.
"I just want to make sure that we did try to make this as open and transparent as possible," Martin said.
Comcast already made its case about network management before the commission at the FCC 's February Harvard Law School hearing, and via numerous formal filings, the company said.
"We felt issues specific to us were well covered at the first hearing and the focus of this event should be broader than any individual company's issues," a Comcast spokeswoman said in an e-mailed statement. "At this point, the most productive course is to continue our business to business discussions and to pursue the process that was outlined in the announcement with Pando."
Comcast will brief the FCC as it makes "reportable progress," the spokeswoman said.
AT&T said in a statement that the Stanford "hearing pertained mostly to the Comcast/BitTorrent matter and to that company's practices about which we have no firsthand knowledge. Furthermore, we have consistently made clear that we do not use TCP resets to manage network congestion."
A CableLabs spokesman said the group only received its invitation to the hearing on Tuesday of this week, which was not enough notice to attend.
Time Warner Cable did not respond to request for comment by press time.
Republican Commissioner Robert McDowell said he was "disappointed that the carriers did not accept commission's invitation to appear."
Of the many witnesses expected to appear at the scheduled seven-hour hearing, only one, Wyoming-based Lariat.net, is a network operator. "Congratulations, thanks for coming," McDowell said. "You have a big burden on your shoulders, it's 20 to 1. You're the only one with real-time network management experience."
Stanford Law welcomed the entire commission and more than a dozen speakers for the second FCC hearing on network management. The issue made headlines last year after Comcast was accused of blocking file-sharing applications; a practice it denied. Interest groups, however, filed an FCC petition that asked the commission to examine providers' network management policies.
McDowell and fellow Republican Commissioner Deborah Tate urged the commission to be cautious in handling Internet regulation.
"Market forces rather than governmental regulation" have helped the Internet grow, Tate said.
"America's Internet economy is the strongest in the world, and it got that way not by government fiat, but by parties working together for a common goal," McDowell said. "For those who argue for more government control, I say be careful what you wish for."
Democratic Commissioner Michael Copps' wish is for is the addition of "an enforceable principle of non-discriminatory behavior to our Internet policy statement."
The commission in 2006 came up with four principles to serve as a framework for broadband Internet access.
"I grant that this won't be easy," Copps said. "But that's exactly why we need a for-sure enforcement process ... to sift through the complaints … and over time establish a precedent."
"If everyone knew that the FCC was on the job … I think word would get out pretty fast that no one should be messing the openness of the Internet," Copps said. "It's going to be a major fight with powerful forces on the other side."
Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, also a Democrat, agreed. "It's time for the commission to strengthen and enhance [the Internet policy statement] and add a fifth principle to address an incentive for anti-competitive" behavior.
"We desperately need more competition in the broadband marketplace," Adelstein said.
The recent 700-MHz auction, which saw AT&T and Verizon snap up a large chunk of the spectrum, "really dashed the hopes of a nationwide, third channel into the home that would've opened up that level of competition," he said.
Adelstein said he was "encouraged" by the Comcast-Pando announcement and "looked forward to hearing more about this."
Internet providers have suggested that the FCC lacks the authority to regulate their behavior, an assertion challenged Thursday by Chairman Martin.
"The commission has the authority under Title I [of the 1996 Telecom Act] to enforce its current principles," Martin said. "The Supreme Court in its Brand X decision recognized that the FCC has ancillary authority to protect broadband Internet access."
It is important for application designers, consumers, and entrepreneurs to understand what they will encounter on the Internet, Martin said.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2704,2285006,00.asp
Fuck the FCC... who the hell needs them anyway! |
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