2009-10-21

A who's who list of Web companies signed a plug on Monday for tougher neutrality rules. The signers include the founders and/or CEOs of Google, Amazon, Digg, Facebook, and Twitter. But the agency is also getting a slew of pressure from groups who warn that new guidelines for network management could cost in investment and jobs.



Most of the key online players came out for net neutrality on Monday. They wrote a letter to the Federal Communications Commission cheering the agency's impending Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on "policies to preserve the open Internet," scheduled to be unveiled on Thursday. Commission Chair Julius Genachowski says he wants to add two more provisions to the FCC's Internet Policy Statement: one that would require ISPs to disclose their network management practices, plus an enforcement mechanism for rule breakers.

Amen, declare the letter writers. "We believe a process that results in common sense baseline rules is critical to ensuring that the Internet remains a key engine of economic growth, innovation, and global competitiveness," they say. "We applaud your leadership in initiating a process to develop rules to ensure that the qualities that have made the Internet so successful are protected."

Signed: Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com; Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist; Digg founder Kevin Rose; Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook; Flickr founder Caterina Fake; and the CEOs or COOs of Skype, Google, eBay, Mozilla, Vuze, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tivo, and Sony; plus a half dozen more Internet biggies.

With this statement, the dominant developers of the Web as we know it have very publicly declared their interest in the establishment of a stronger net neutrality mechanism at the FCC. "An open Internet fuels a competitive and efficient marketplace, where consumers make the ultimate choices about which products succeed and which fail," their statement concludes. "This allows businesses of all sizes, from the smallest startup to larger corporations, to compete, yielding maximum economic growth and opportunity."
Great concern

But as the agency's Open Commission meeting scheduled for Thursday approaches, tremendous pressure is coming from a very different direction, and it argues that the main issue is not innovation so much as investment and jobs. So say the state Attorney Generals from Washington, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and South Carolina. The last states' AG is "very concerned," he wrote to the FCC, "about any new net neutrality regulations that could adversely impact the communications industry’s willingness to continue to invest and, thereby, hinder the future growth of the wireless or wireline Internet industry."

Ditto, warn a veritable army of governors, state representatives, mayors, and local Chambers of Commerce presidents who have suddenly discovered an interest in this issue. "While much progress has been made, the FCC's new focus on wireless network neutrality causes me great concern, because of the negative consequences for investment, innovation and jobs in Connecticut," wrote Tom Buzi, First Selectman of Monroe, Connecticut late last week. "More regulation means less investment—and fewer jobs."

Some of this feedback is doubtless being encouraged by the telcos, and we'll have more on that later. But interestingly, the organization that has the most direct stake in Internet job creation is sending mixed signals to the FCC on the matter. On October 15 Larry Cohen, President of the Communications Workers of America sent the FCC a letter warning that any new rules must avoid "an adverse impact on investment and job creation." But the filing also acknowledged that some carefully crafted enforcement and transparency regulations might be a good idea. CWA supported the FCC's sanctions against Comcast for BitTorrent throttling in 2008.

The FCC should frame "a proposed fifth principle protecting consumers from unreasonable discrimination," Cohen emphasized, "that includes appropriately robust carve-outs for managed networks and reasonable network management, while promoting a dynamic, open, and public Internet." But while the message from CWA's top staff acknowledges the complexity of the problem, statements coming the union's various locals are unabashedly hostile to net neutrality—check out the following, for example, from CWA Local 6201 President Denny Kramer of Dallas, Texas.

"When you talk about the proposed net neutrality regulations that you and your colleagues will consider on October 22, do you know that you put 738 of these CWA jobs and countless others in Texas at risk due to these onerous, unnecessary regulations?" Kramer's letter asks. "If our nation is to recover fully from the depths of this terrible recession, it will be because of the sweat and efforts of my brothers and sisters." He urged the FCC to "proceed with caution before implementing regulations that may take our country down a path that would reduce investments and limit jobs in an industry sector so crucial to our larger well being."

This is going to be one fun and frisky FCC proceeding. The merryrulemaking starts Thursday 10am ET at fcc.gov/live.

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