Home > posts > “Net Neutrality” – Broadband Expansion Requires Regulatory Restraint, Not Regulatory Expansion
June 15th, 2010 11:26 am
“Net Neutrality” – Broadband Expansion Requires Regulatory Restraint, Not Regulatory Expansion
Posted by Print

Whom do you trust with the future of broadband?  The same federal government that brought us public education, the Post Office and Amtrak?

Or the innovative technology companies that have made the Internet the most vibrant and transformative sector of our modern economy in an atmosphere relatively free from federal overregulation?  Public opinion is unequivocal – we trust technology enterprises, not the federal government.

That question nevertheless remains an important one, because Obama’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and its far-left cheerleaders continue their effort to impose “Net Neutrality” and set us on a path toward a federal regulatory takeover of the Internet.  On Thursday, the FCC will hold an open meeting to”consider possible legal frameworks for broadband Internet services,” which is code for its “Net Neutrality” takeover attempt.  On the heels of a unanimous Court of Appeals decision ruling that the FCC doesn’t possess authority to impose “Net Neutrality,” Chairman Genachowski switched to Plan B – simply reclassify Internet service under Depression-era regulations created for 1930s landline telephone service.  That scheme contradicts bipartisan consensus spanning both the Clinton and Bush administrations, which is why Democrats and Republicans in Congress sent letters to the FCC objecting to this maneuver.

If successful, the FCC’s backdoor scheme to impose “Net Neutrality” (a dishonest name if there ever was one) will undermine the freedom of technology companies to innovate and invest, which has been the basis of the Internet’s success thus far.  Instead of triggering broadband expansion, “Net Neutrality” will only invite years of litigation and acrimony if the FCC presses this agenda.

We simply cannot allow the FCC and federal bureaucracy to do to the Internet what it has done for public education in this country.

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