The WSJ reports very good news from the FCC.
WASHINGTON–Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski has decided to reregulate Internet lines to protect net neutrality, siding with consumer groups and Internet companies worried that Internet providers have too much power.
On Wednesday, Mr. Genachowski's staff began briefing the FCC's commissioners on how they will propose to regulate Internet lines under rules that were written for traditional phone networks. Some of those rules won't be applied to Internet networks, FCC officials say, but others will be used to enforce net neutrality, or regulations that require Internet providers to treat traffic equally and not slow or block websites.
This is good news, indicating that the FCC could be prepared to maximize the tools at its disposal. The paln isn't out yet, but this is a great start. Earlier today, Henry Waxman and Jay Rockefeller, chairs of the commerce committees, wrote to Genachowski, laying out what is at stake in this decision.
Broadband is not just a technology; it is a platform for social, economic, and educational opportunity.
As a result, we are concerned that the Federal Communications Commission's authority to protect broadband consumers and implement important aspects of the National Broadband Plan has been called into question by the opinion of the United States Court of Appeals in Comcast Corporation v. Federal Communications Commission. Specifically, questions have been raised about the Commission's authority to move forward with its efforts to promote broadband adoption and deployment in unserved and underserved areas, safeguard consumer privacy, provide consumers with complete and accurate information about broadband service offerings, protect an open Internet, and strengthen public safety communications and cybersecurity.
We believe that it is essential for the Commission to have oversight over these aspects of broadband policy, because they are vitally important to consumers and our growing digital economy. For this reason, in the near term, we want the agency to use all of its existing authority to protect consumers and pursue the broad objectives of the National Broadband Plan.
To accomplish these objectives, the Commission should consider all viable options. This includes a change in classification, provided that doing so entails a light regulatory touch, with appropriate use of forbearance authority.
In the long term, if there is a need to rewrite the law to provide consumers, the Commission, and industry with a new framework for telecommunications policy, we are committed as Committee Chairmen to doing so.
Reclassifying broadband is going to be the key to a modern, robust broadband infrastructure, and to net neutrality.
Update: Wired has more:
The FCC says it will move to put broadband back under Title II, but only apply a few of the regulations under that portion of law, using a process called "forbearance" to cancel out the rules it considers unnecessary.
"The Chairman will outline a ‘third way’ approach between a weak Title I and a needlessly burdensome Title II approach," the official said. "It would 1) apply to broadband transmission service only the small handful of Title II provisions that, prior to the Comcast decision, were widely believed to be within the Commission’s purview, and 2) would have broad up-front forbearance and meaningful boundaries to guard against regulatory overreach."
...
Reclassification is often referred to as the ‘nuclear option,’ since it undoes a decision that actually ended up being contested all the way at the Supreme Court. Even if the FCC describes its approach as the "third way", expect a fierce battle from the nation’s telecom giants and from Republicans such as Kay Bailey Hutchison, who last fall wanted to cut the FCC’s budget over a move to formally apply net neutrality rules to internet providers.
It’s not clear if the FCC will seek to apply the reclassification only to wireline broadband providers, or if it will also extend them to the wireless industry, as well.
There'll be fights ahead, but it's better that the fight happen than the alternative--no reclassification and essentially no regulation of broadband.