Verizon calls on Congress to rethink Internet oversight, could take away power from FCC

Verizon Communications is calling on Congress to rethink the way the federal government oversees Internet services, with recommendations that could take away power from the Federal Communications Commission just one week after it unveiled a decade-long plan to bring broadband Internet to the nation.

Verizon Executive Vice President Tom Tauke said at a tech policy event sponsored by the New Democrat Network on Wednesday that the authority of the FCC over broadband is "at best murky." It was the most forceful statements yet by Verizon in a growing debate over the FCC's oversight of broadband services. A court challenge by Comcast has raised fresh doubts about the agency's authority over those services, prompting some interest groups to push the FCC to reclassify broadband services more concretely under its control. But as the Internet quickly evolves, Tauke proposed Congress look at whether the federal government should retool its approach. Instead of a regulatory agency making rules for the Web, he said, Congress should consider itself or an agency as an enforcement body - determining bad players who violate consumer protections, for example, on a case-by-case basis. That would supplant the FCC's rule-making approach to oversight, where it currently issues competition, consumer protection and access rules for communications services providers.

"In my view, the current statute is badly out of date. Now is the time to focus on updating the law affecting the Internet," Tauke said in his speech. "To fulfill broadband's potential, it's time for Congress to take a fresh look at our nation's communications policy framework."