FCC.politics.gov

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[Commentary] The Federal Communications Commission is by all accounts planning this week to uphold a complaint against Comcast, the cable company accused of throttling attempts to trade movies and other high-bandwidth files on its network that slow down Internet service for everyone else. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin wants to make an example of Comcast in order to advance a "network neutrality" industrial policy being pushed by high-tech rivals like Google and pro-regulation advocacy groups like MoveOn.org, Consumers Union and Free Press. Those who would use Comcast's actions to argue for more Internet regulation have misidentified the Big Brother problem. It's not the private sector they should be worried about. There's no evidence that Comcast was trying to suppress a political view or favor one of its own services. By all appearances, the company's policies were motivated by nothing more than making sure a tiny percentage of bandwidth hogs didn't slow down Internet traffic for everyone else on the network. Giving the government more say in network management, by contrast, introduces all kinds of potential for political mischief. Regulators would do better to focus on keeping the overall telecom marketplace competitive. If Comcast customers don't like the company's network management policies, they're free to take their business to Verizon, or AT&T, or some other Internet service provider. A World Wide Web run by Kevin Martin and his political friends will leave us with poorer quality and fewer options all around.


FCC.politics.gov