Verizon: Feds shouldn't reign over Internet service providers

Verizon Communications, ahead of a change in Congress, urged self-regulation of the Internet as the Federal Communications Commission attempts to assert more authority over broadband service providers like it.

Tom Tauke, Verizon's executive vice president of public affairs, said in a meeting hosted by the Optoelectronics Industry Development Association, that so-called network neutrality rules proposed by the FCC and its push to govern broadband service providers "have resulted in court rebukes and considerable uncertainty." "After haggling over the issue for over five years, we are essentially in the same place we were when this debate started," Tauke said. "There still is no identifiable problem to be solved, and instead, as predicted, technology and market forces are ensuring that access to the Internet is open to consumers, as well as to developers of content and services."