November 2014

President Barack Obama’s call for "the strongest possible rules" for network neutrality undermined weeks of work by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler to develop an alternative policy, which he has said in private meetings could preserve a free and open Web while also addressing concerns by the Internet providers.

Because of the unprecedented nature of the FCC's compromise proposal and its controversial nature -- critics fear it would not prevent Internet providers from slowing down content they don't like -- the agency held a flurry of meetings with a wide range of groups, including major tech companies, lobbyists, consumer advocates and the telecom industry to see if it could bring a broad coalition together around its plan, according to a half-dozen people familiar with the discussions. In the days before the president's statement, the agency's efforts appeared to be working. Some tech companies, including at least one major firm, and several tech interest groups showed signs of warming to the outreach. Chairman Wheeler scheduled a series of critical meetings on Nov 10 at the FCC to discuss differences. Talk emerged of working out language in a letter that would clarify the sentiments of all involved and help build consensus for Wheeler's plan. But all of that was thrown off-track as soon as President Obama called for "bright-line rules" backed up by the FCC's most aggressive powers. Now a number of companies who were close to signing onto the "hybrid" plan proposed by Wheeler are in a holding pattern. Demand for a less-compromising stance has increased. And pressure is building on Chairman Wheeler and the FCC to decide what it should do.

Get ready to hear a lot about the future of Music Freedom. T-Mobile's free music streaming service could soon find itself in the middle of a high-stakes battle over whether Internet service providers should be able to give Web companies preferential treatment on their networks.

Music Freedom is a so-called zero-rated app that offers data-free access to services like Rhapsody, Pandora and iTunes radio. (With zero-rated apps, either the network operator or the content provider picks up the cost of the data that users consume.) Zero-rated apps are particularly popular in parts of the world where it is very expensive to download data to watch a movie or browse the Web. But whether or not those apps would be allowed in the United States under a far-reaching network neutrality plan proposed by President Barack Obama isn't yet clear. He called on the Federal Communications Commission to adopt strict rules that would forbid Internet service providers from charging content companies (like Netflix) to get priority access to consumers. Most of the debate around the rules has centered on broadband service to homes, but President Obama advocated for applying them to mobile Internet providers, as well.

House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI), Senate Commerce Committee Ranking Member John Thune (R-SD), and the other signatories to the letter praise the values of net neutrality and an Open Internet, but insist that the Federal Communications Commission has no authority to create enforceable rules to protect these values. The President proposes the way forward to use existing authority -- reclassifying broadband as a Title II service. Rather than engage on the merits, Chairman Upton and Ranking Member Thune respond with a litany of talking points provided by industry lobbyists, choosing to side with a handful of special interests rather than the millions of small businesses, entrepreneurs and ordinary Americans who want to keep the internet a level playing field for all.

In 2010, Republicans in Congress rejected the effort by Democrats to solve the problem and refused to even consider legislation drafted by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and supported by companies such as AT&T and Verizon. In 2011, Republicans voted to repeal the FCC’s Open Internet rules despite broad popular and industry support for the rules. A recent survey released by the Internet Freedom Business Alliance shows that -- outside of Washington and away from the influence of special interest lobbying -- Republicans and Democrats alike support strong Open Internet rules. We hope that Republicans in Congress will show they can govern and engage constructively on this issue instead of resorting to partisan politics. We encourage both Chairman Upton and Ranking Member Thune to share how they intend to promote net neutrality without passing legislation or enabling the FCC to create rules that prevent ISPs from violating it.”

[Commentary] Let’s not be fooled by Sen. Ted Cruz’s harangue against “net neutrality” in his Nov. 14 Washington Forum commentary, “Log off the Internet, Uncle Sam.” Somehow, he forgot to mention corporate control, which is what net neutrality is all about.

Sen Cruz (R-TX) wants to be sure that Comcast, Time Warner and AT&T are given the opportunity to take more money from our pockets. These corporations want companies and people to pay them for faster searching on the Internet. This is why Google, Facebook and Amazon favor keeping the Internet free and open: It is essential to their businesses. No one controls the Internet; it is a web, decentralized. Net neutrality allows for all Internet traffic to be treated equally. But the big media corporations dislike that idea, so in addition to raising our rates for Internet access, they would like to charge us to search on the Web.

President Obama is right that, without net neutrality, we will pay more unless the Federal Communications Commission creates “a new set of rules protecting net neutrality and ensuring that neither the cable company nor the phone company will be able to act as a gatekeeper, restricting what you can do or see online.”