|
The FCC Strikes Back - Seeks To Reclassify ISPs As Telecoms
The option favored by public interest groups is for the FCC to take the drastic course of formally reclassifying broadband as a regulated service, reversing the position it held and defended just a few years ago.The FCC should immediately start a proceeding bringing internet access service back under some common carrier regulation similar to that used for decades,' said Gigi Sohn, the president of the pro-net neutrality group Public Knowledge. In our view, the FCC needs to move quickly and decisively to make sure that consumers are not left at the mercy of telephone and cable companies.' The FCC's own statement on the decision acknowledges it will have to do just that. Today's court decision invalidated the prior Commission's approach to preserving an open internet,' said FCC spokeswoman Jen Howard in a written statement. But the Court in no way disagreed with the importance of preserving a free and open internet; nor did it close the door to other methods for achieving this important end.' Other methods' obliquely refer to either Congress passing a law giving it the power (a process that would likely take years) or the FCC reclassifying broadband as a telecommunications service in legal terms, moving broadband from Title I to Title II of the Telecommunications Act. "Above all else, we must control what is seen and heard by the proletariat." Posted by: Anonymoose 2010-04-08 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=294224 |