The D.C. Circuit’s decision to vacate the FCC’s Comcast-BitTorrent order has a lot of people chattering, including a University of Michigan Law School professor, about how the FCC should “reclassify” broadband as a “Title II” service. The belief is that such a move is necessary to either (a) extract the FCC from an “existential crisis,” or (b) free the FCC’s National Broadband Plan from “legal limbo.” The FCC’s top lawyer has fueled the chatter with a blog post, questioning its authority on a variety of issues, in light of the court decision.
I’m not going to bore you with our view of why classifying broadband as Title II is a mistake. Instead, I’m going to bore you with a brief history of broadband classifications and the mythology that has sprung up around them.
Some believe, incorrectly, that broadband Internet access used to live under the watchful eye of a wise and beneficent FCC. In this latter-day Eden, the FCC regulated broadband Internet access as a telecommunications service under Title II. But then the FCC was tempted into taking a bite out of the Title I apple, and pretty soon they had eaten the whole thing.
Leading the effort is SCORE “Counselors to America’s Small Business,” which is working with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) to grow one million small businesses through the use of advanced services.
This morning, at an event in Washington, D.C., I joined FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, SBA Administrator Karen Mills, SCORE CEO Ken Yancy and other technology companies to kick off the SCORE Public/Private Broadband Consortium. With the help of donations from its founding partners, like us, the consortium’s focus will be to increase e-commerce capabilities for small businesses through improved training, digital literacy, and online tools. For AT&T, this is part of our continuing effort to provide small business owners with cutting-edge services and the tools and support they need to be successful.
Today, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals issued its opinion on the Comcast v. FCC case. The following statement may be attributed to Jim Cicconi, AT&T Senior Executive Vice President of External and Legislative Affairs:
“AT&T made a commitment to abide by the FCC’s Open Internet Principles when they were first formulated in 2005, and we will continue to do so. Those facts have not been changed by today’s action by the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. AT&T supports an open Internet. That is what our customers count on us to deliver, and we will not disappoint them.
Moreover, the FCC’s Open Internet Principles work. In the nearly five years since these Principles were put in place, the FCC has encountered only one serious complaint, and even in that case, which was before the court today, the company took steps to address the complaint long before the FCC ruled.
Earlier today, AT&T helped launch a 