With the FCC’s role in the broadband sector mired in uncertainty, some of the biggest outfits in the ISP sector are hoping to stave off any effort at the commission to firm up its regulatory authority.
In the latest volley in a noisy policy debate, AT&T, Verizon and others have sent a pointed letter to the commission advising that it doesn’t have the authority to regulate broadband as a Title II telecommunications service. What’s more, they argue that it never has, putting them squarely at odds with a litany of consumer groups and other net neutrality supporters.
That Comcast case certainly did complicate things. Enterprise Networking Planet takes a look at the issue.
A group of cable and telecom providers and their lobbying organizations is challenging the authority of communications regulators to impose binding regulations on the broadband sector.
In a letter to the Federal Communications Commission, Verizon, AT&T, Time Warner Cable and the principal trade groups for the wireless, cable and telecom industries urged the commission to look past the “alarmist rhetoric” of the groups appealing for a reclassification of broadband service under communications law that would clear the way for more vigorous regulatory oversight.
Citing a laundry list of prior court decisions and FCC rulings, the group argued that consumer broadband service has never been subject to the same common-carrier regulations as wireline telephone service, a prelude to the legal fight that would attend any effort to shift broadband to a so-called Title II telecommunications service.
