Lawmaker to Try Again to Find Common Ground on Internet Rules
July 25 2017 - 6:20PM
Dow Jones News
By John D. McKinnon
WASHINGTON -- An influential House committee chairman is
launching a new effort to pass compromise net-neutrality
legislation, seeking common ground between high-tech and
telecommunications firms that have battled for a decade over
internet governance rules.
Commerce Chairman Greg Walden (R., Ore.) said he would begin
hearings in early September with executives from major internet
firms such as Facebook Inc., Alphabet Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and
Netflix Inc., as well as major broadband providers such as AT&T
Inc. and Comcast Corp.
The Federal Communications Commission is moving toward a vote as
soon as September to void much of the current rules of the road for
the internet, although officials on Tuesday didn't offer a firm
timeline for a decision.
Internet and telecommunications firms have bickered for the past
decade over details of the rules -- for example, whether providers
should be prohibited from blocking content or offering fast lanes
to those willing to pay. The FCC also has struggled to find the
proper legal footing for its internet rules among the aging federal
telecommunications laws, and two previous versions of its rules
were tossed out by courts.
Many policy makers and tech-law experts say Congress has
neglected to keep telecommunications laws up to date given the pace
of change in technology and the growth of the companies that drive
the internet. The last major rewrite was more than 20 years
ago.
"It is time for Congress to legislate the rules of the internet,
and stop the ping-pong game of regulations and litigation," Mr.
Walden said. He made his comments Tuesday at a subcommittee hearing
on FCC oversight.
Tech firms gained strong protection from their
telecommunications rivals in the latest version of the
net-neutrality rules adopted by the FCC in 2015, during the Obama
administration. Those strict rules prohibited the providers from
blocking, throttling or offering fast lanes, and reclassified the
internet providers as common carriers, subjecting them to strict
utility-style oversight.
But the GOP victory in 2016 has led to an effort to roll back
those net-neutrality rules. Republicans generally have been
sympathetic to arguments by telecommunications firms that the
strict 2015 version will slow investment in broadband, partly
because of the risk that the rules will be further tightened to
include rate regulation. Republicans are likely to seek to maintain
net-neutrality principles in whatever they adopt, but the new rules
are likely to be less prescriptive.
The rollback effort has generated considerable controversy, and
more than 12 million comments -- many of them opposing the rollback
-- have been filed with the FCC, although officials question the
validity of some, saying they were generated by bots. Whatever the
FCC adopts is almost sure to be the subject of another lengthy
legal challenge.
That has further encouraged Republicans to try to pass
legislation, which they last tried in 2015.
Faced with the growing likelihood of a sweeping rollback of the
2015 rules, some tech firms also have appeared to voice stronger
support for legislation lately.
During an internet protest of the planned rollback on July 12,
for example, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a posting that
his company strongly supports the current rules, but is "open to
working with members of Congress" on new legislation to protect net
neutrality.
Telecommunications firms were encouraged by the news, while
internet companies were more reserved.
AT&T Executive Vice President Tim McKone said in a blog post
that Mr. Walden's announcement "demonstrates that momentum appears
to be building for a legislative solution to put sensible open
internet rules on solid ground....While being trapped in an endless
loop of controversy over net neutrality may be in the interest of
those who fundraise off of it, it is poor public policy that
threatens investment by service providers and denies consumers the
tremendous benefits that stem from such investment."
Comcast said in a statement, "We applaud Chairman Walden's call
to hear from companies across the internet ecosystem...on the
ground rules for net neutrality going forward. Comcast believes the
best way to stop the regulatory ping-pong on this important issue
is for Congress to enact bipartisan legislation."
A spokeswoman for Facebook confirmed that the company received
an invitation to the event and is currently reviewing it.
Representatives of for Alphabet, Amazon and Netflix declined to
comment.
--Douglas MacMillan in San Francisco contributed to this
article.
Write to John D. McKinnon at john.mckinnon@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 25, 2017 18:05 ET (22:05 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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