The Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski, in a speech at the Brookings Institute this morning, said that the FCC would be taking a greater interest in enforcing net neutrality in the US in light of developments both recent and longstanding. “I am convinced that there are few goals more essential in the communications landscape than preserving and maintaining an open and robust Internet.”
The idea of net neutrality is anything but new. It is essentially what we enjoy now in that broadband internet service providers must give equal access to all content. In recent years, the internet has exploded in terms of usage and versatility. Several people, like myself, have abandoned television entirely because of this. For these reasons, major providers such as AT&T and Comcast have shown interest in new business models wherein other companies can purchase from providers the capability for their websites to be favored in terms of accessibility and bandwidth. This development would put a strain not only on small businesses operating online, but it would absolutely strangle any non-profit that couldn’t pony up the costs (any non profit that doesn’t take massive weekly collections from it’s members that is). Free speech becomes much more expensive.
Genachowski proposed regulations that stress “nondiscrimination and transparency” in broadband providers network management practices meaning that providers cannot discriminate against, block, or favor any content and that they must clearly demonstrate this. Although taking a stance on this issue shows prescience for what will inevitably become a bitter conflict, caution must be exercised. If the case for net neutrality is defeated here, then it will open the doors for an internet where independent media outlets and small businesses have to subsist on the scraps of bandwith left over from the major media conglomerates expensive feast.
How the FCC plans to do this exactly hasn’t been spelled out yet, but the idea is already drawing opposition from the right. Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas said “The case has simply not been made for what amounts to a significant regulatory intervention into a vibrant marketplace,” as he introduced an appropriations bill amendment to deny FCC funding for exploring ways to regulate broadband providers in a way to enforce net neutrality.
Net neutrality is in the balance and broadband providers are biting their nails. Let’s all hope for the best.
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