FTC is neutral on net neutrality
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(InfoWorld) - The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is taking the middle ground in the net neutrality debate that pits large telecommunications operators against Internet giants. In a report on its examination ofÂ the net neutrality issue, the FTC on Wednesday didn't urge lawmakers to either pass or kill neutrality legislation but instead recommended that policymakers proceed with caution. Net neutrality refers to the concept of an open Internet where all content is treated the same way. Net neutrality regulation, backed by companies such as Google and by World Wide Web pioneer Timothy Berners-Lee, would require telecommunications operators to keep their networks neutral. Operators, however, typically argue that such regulations would stifle innovation. Qwest Communications International and Verizon CommunicationsÂ interpreted the FTC statement as a victory. "The Federal Trade Commission report confirms that there is no problem to fix," said Tom Tauke, Verizon executive vice president for public affairs, policy and communications, in a statement. "Proposals to impose new regulation actually threaten further advancements in broadband Internet connections." Qwest issued a similar comment. "Qwest is pleased with the findings of the report released today by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that government regulation of the Internet is unnecessary because there is no evidence of market failure or consumer harm," said Gary Lytle, Qwest senior vice president of federal relations, in a statement. An organization on the other side of the fence, the Open Internet Coalition, was pleased to see that the FTC found that consumers have said they strongly prefer the current open access model. But the group warned that Congress and the Federal Communications Commission must act to protect the open Internet. If policymakers wait until operators begin treating traffic differently, it will be very difficult to return to the current open framework, the group said. The SavetheInternet.com Coalition took a similar stance. "This is not the time for caution, but rather forward-looking and decisive action reinstating Net Neutrality once and for all," said S. Derek Turner, research director of Free Press, an organization that is part of the SavetheInternet.com Coalition, in a statement. The FTC said the broadband industry is moving toward more competition. Thus, in the absence of market failure, policy makers should be particularly careful in enacting new regulations. However, some organizations, including the SavetheInternet.com Coalition, argue that competition is weak, with most consumers having at most two operators to choose from. Recent consolidation, such as SBC's acquisition of AT&T, has shrunk the competitive market. In May, 54 organizations, including Amazon.com and Tivo,Â called for a national broadband policyÂ that includes net neutrality laws. Google's public policy blog, launched in late May, already includes several entries supporting net neutrality.
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Antitrust authorities at the U.S.  Justice Department on Thursday warned regulators against  imposing &quot;network neutrality&quot; regulations that would bar  broadband Internet service companies from charging extra to  some content providers.
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(InfoWorld) - The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has ruled that incumbent local exchange carriers must connect to VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) services, overruling two state public service commission opinions. The FCC on Thursday granted a petition from Time Warner Cable Inc., which had complained that the South Carolina and Nebraska public service commissions had allowed rural local exchange carriers to refuse access to wholesale telecom vendors connecting to Time Warner's VoIP service. The rural carriers had argued that FCC rules don't require them to connect to the wholesale vendors because they don't provide direct voice service to residents. But the FCC said that argument was a misinterpretation of its rules. The FCC "must promote competition in every sector it oversees and create a level playing field among service providers," said FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, in a statement. The FCC decision "ensures that consumers in all areas of the country reap the benefits of competition in the form of lower prices, innovative services and more choice," he added. Time Warner Cable, which was using wholesale transport services from MCI, now part of Verizon Communications Inc., and Sprint Nextel Corp., filed a petition with the FCC last March. The two state commissions had ruled that the services provided by MCI and Sprint did not quality as telecommunications services, and therefore, rural incumbent local exchange carriers were not required to interconnect with them. But four other states required local carriers to connect with the wholesale vendors, Time Warner argued. The FCC, in its decision, said interconnection requirements should apply to both retail and wholesale telecom services. "A contrary decision would impede the important development of wholesale telecommunications and facilities-based VoIP competition," the FCC said in its order.
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All hail the tiered internet A new study from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the University of Nevada Reno says that net neutrality is a bad idea. Of course, that's what you'd expect it to say. It was paid for by AT&amp;T.â¦
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Despite our best efforts to unearth tech-inclined voters, Net neutrality doesn't ring a bell with most residents we interviewed in the Granite State.
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Citizens have until Friday to sway government regulators on net neutrality, the principle that ISPs should treat all packets of internet data equally.
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Hundreds of groups and individual Internet users sounded off to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission on net neutrality in comments filed Monday, the deadline for responding to the agency&#39;s inquiry into the proposed regulation.
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(InfoWorld) - Hundreds of groups and individual Internet users sounded off to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC)Â on net neutrality in comments filed Monday, the deadline for responding to the agency's inquiry into the proposed regulation. Individual Internet users, trade groups, and advocacy organizations filed about 670 comments about net neutrality rules with the FCC Monday. Individuals and organizations have submitted nearly 29,000 comments on net neutrality since the FCC opened its inquiry in late March. Net neutrality advocates want the FCC or the U.S. Congress to prohibit large broadband providers like AT&TÂ and Comcast from blocking or slowing Web content from competitors. Many of the comments Monday came from individual Internet users who asked the FCC to protect them against new fees that they fear broadband providers could charge Web content providers. "Keep the corporations off our rights," wrote Internet user Jack McFarley of Washington state in an e-mail that was part form letter. "Net neutrality is essential to free speech, equal opportunity, and economic innovation in America." Bonnie Bennett of California seemed to take a more individual approach in her e-mail to the FCC. "Free, unlimited access to the Internet is the modern-day version of how to educate the citizenry of a well-functioning democracy," she wrote. "Big companies and global corporations care a lot about profits and stockholders but not much about educating citizens." A technology director of a school in Mississippi said net neutrality rules would protect his students' ability to access the information they need. "The importance of the Internet is increasing each month," wrote David Scovic. "Many small innovative Web sites that are vital to our teaching would be affected by a no vote [on net neutrality rules]." Net neutrality advocates have argued that such rules are needed after decisions by the FCC and the U.S. Supreme Court in 2005 allowed broadband providers to stop sharing their networks with competing Internet service providers. The debate over net neutrality heated up after Ed Whitacre, former CEO at AT&T, complained in BusinessWeek in late 2005 about potential competition from Internet companies, saying he wasn't going to let them "use my pipes free." In March, the FCC launched an inquiry to examine net neutrality proposals, looking at whether broadband providers charge different prices for different speeds and how consumers are affected by the ways broadband providers manage their networks. Hands Off the Internet, an advocacy group representing AT&T, Alcatel-Lucent, the American Conservative Union and other organizations, said in its filing that net neutrality advocates haven't shown the need for new regulations. Broadband providers aren't blocking competing content, the group said. "There is no current or anticipated content discrimination or service degradation justifying new regulations by the commission," wrote Christopher Wolf, cochairman of Hands Off the Internet. "Moreover, regulation could well thwart Internet growth and make consumer access unfairly expensive." The Computer & Communications Industry Association, a trade group representing Microsoft, Google, and other tech vendors, said a net neutrality rule is needed because there's little competition among broadband providers. Broadband providers "insult the commission's expertise by summarily proclaiming the broadband access market competitive without any specific evidence of competition," the group said.
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State regulators unanimously voted Tuesday to allow SBC Communications Inc. to charge competitors more to use its network, but it was unclear when, or if, that increase would be felt
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Let God sort 'em out The Federal Trade Commission has cautioned against regulations that would ensure telecom providers treat all internet traffic the same way.â¦
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By Koprowski, Gene  The concept of "net neutrality" sounds quite reasonable in theory, but the policy proposals coming from federal legislators and bureaucrats may in reality be quite discriminatory.
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The Web site of a law firm employing the husband of U.S. Federal Trade Commission chairwoman Deborah Platt Majoras contradicts an FTC explanation that Majoras has no conflict of interest in reviewing DoubleClick&#39;s $3.1 billion acquisition by Google, two privacy groups said Thursday.On Wednesday, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD)&#160;asked Majoras to recuse herself from the merger review, saying her husband, John Majoras, is a partner with Jones Day, the law firm that is advising DoubleClick on antitrust issues relating to the acquisition.DoubleClick and the FTC have denied that Jones Day has represented the company before the FTC.But on Thursday, EPIC and CDD filed a second complaint with the FTC, showing a cached Web page claiming that Jones Day is advising DoubleClick &quot;on the international and U.S. antitrust and competition law aspects of its planned $3.1 billion acquisition by Google Inc.&quot; The Jones Day Web page was later changed, the groups said.EPIC and CDD said Thursday they were filing a Freedom of Information Act request seeking all records on the relationship between Jones Day and DoubleClick.One conclusion to draw is that &quot;Jones Day has sought to conceal the nature, scope, and duration of the relationship with its client DoubleClick by altering web pages,&quot; said a letter signed by executive directors of both organizations. FTC spokespeople who denied the relationship were &quot;either misinformed or willfully misled the public,&quot; the letter says.An FTC spokeswoman declined to comment on the new complaint. Representatives of Jones Day and DoubleClick weren&#39;t immediately available for comment.The FTC and DoubleClick downplayed the connection Wednesday, saying Jones Day has not advised DoubleClick on matters before the FTC. Instead, Simpson Thacher &amp; Bartlett has been DoubleClick&#39;s outside counsel since July of 2005 and has advised it in matters before the FTC, DoubleClick said in a statement.&quot;Jones Day was not engaged to represent, and has not represented DoubleClick before the Federal Trade Commission or appeared before the commission on DoubleClick&#8217;s behalf,&quot; the company said.In April, EPIC, CDD, and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (US PIRG)&#160;asked the FTC to block Google&#39;s acquisition of DoubleClick&#160;unless the combined company made changes to its privacy practices. The combined company would hold a vast amount of private information on Web users, the groups said.
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Justice Department sides with AT&amp;T, Verizon The US Department of Justice is badmouthing net neutrality.â¦
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InfoWorld - An online advertiser that drove traffic to its Web sites by sending out spam with misleading subject lines has agreed to settle a U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC)Â complaint charging that it failed to tell consumers they had to spend money to receive so-called free products, the FTC announced Wednesday.
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FCC clears the way for more companies to offer the alternative form of Net access. The US Federal Communications Commission this week cleared the way for power companies to roll out broadband over power line
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The Federal Communications Commission ruled that states are now barred from imposing telecommunications regulations on Net phone providers, which treat calls no differently than any other application on the Internet.
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The FTC's peer-to-peer workshop brings opposing sides together, and they agree something should be done, but it's that uncertain something that is causing trouble. Michael Grebb reports from Washington.