Regulate the Internet?

[Commentary] More reaction to last week's New York Times editorial calling for the Federal Communications Commission and Congress to figure out how the agency can protect broadband consumers.

Wendy, from the Progress and Freedom Foundation, concludes that "America's Internet thrives. It does so because of less regulation, not more. The FCC's plan to regulate the Internet will hurt average Americans by limiting choice and thwarting expansion of new services and options."

Wilkes, Executive Director of the League of United Latin American Citizens, warns that network neutrality "could shield the companies that make billions in profits from the Internet — search engines and other providers — from contributing toward the $350 billion in investment broadband upgrades needed to handle bandwidth demands, which double every two years. That would shift these bandwidth costs exclusively — 100 percent — onto consumers and could thereby deter broadband adoption in Latino and other communities. Net neutrality could also bar broadband providers from managing, in a nondiscriminatory manner, the few bandwidth-hogging applications and services that can consume nearly all of a neighborhood's bandwidth. If and when critics identify a real problem, Congress should quickly grant the FCC the express authority to fix it."