Sunroom Desk

The Federal Communications Commission is accepting public input until June 8, 2009 for A National Broadband Plan for Our Future. The final plan will be presented in February 2010. This is an opportunity for individuals, local governments, and organizations to voice opinions on broadband technology, access, and regulations.

The Free Press just published Changing Media: Public Interest Policies for the Digital Age, a free downloadable book.

The book explains how telecommunications policy since 2000 has quashed competition among internet service providers, covers the Net Neutrality controversy of open internet access, and explores solutions to the crisis facing public interest journalism.

Open internet recommendations in the book have widespread support, with the notable exception of large broadband providers and their business lobbies. Free Press contends that the FCC should preserve “nondiscrimination” to prevent those owning the pipeline from setting tiered prices for access, speed, and content. Extended excerpts from the document are below:

How should the FCC design a nondiscrimination principle or rule?

First, nondiscrimination rules must prohibit Internet access providers from blocking, discriminating against or otherwise degrading any lawful content, applications or services.

…Second, nondiscrimination rules must prohibit network operators from selling or offering any capacity to prioritize some Internet packets over others, whether to a third party or to an affiliate… Nondiscrimination rules must prevent the creation of two separate lanes of traffic for Internet packets, particularly when access to the “fast lane” is available only to the network owner’s affiliated content or to the highest bidders.

…Finally, nondiscrimination rules must prohibit Internet access providers from charging additional fees to allow specific types of Internet content, applications or services to be used. As with prioritization of Internet packets, charging special fees for certain uses of the Internet – for example, selling two subscription levels, where a “basic” level does not allow P2P communications but a “premium” level does — raises the costs of entry, increases costs for consumers, and turns the Internet into a form of pay-for-play media like cable TV. To avoid limiting innovation and
consumer choice, nondiscrimination rules must prohibit any discriminatory fees for specific content, applications or services.

…Enshrining nondiscrimination into the Internet Policy Statement and codifying these principles into rules for all technologies delivering Internet access — including wireless technologies — should be a top priority for the FCC. It should also be a top priority for Congress. Though the Commission has the clear authority to directly deal with this issue, it would be a cleaner process if Congress were to put Network Neutrality explicitly back into the law. This would give the Commission a mandate to proceed, and would ward off the eventual legal process that will follow Commission action.

…The notion that discrimination is needed to encourage investment has been completely discredited.

…It is frustrating that there is even a debate over Network Neutrality, because neutrality is the very lifeblood of the network; it is what made the Internet into a service that companies like AT&T and Comcast could get rich selling.