More FCC Follow-up
Many thanks to Kevin for the live blog. This bizjournal article paints a rather rosey picture of the hearing yesterday (in terms of net neutrality), stating:
Markey, chairman of the House subcommittee on telecommunications and Internet, and coordinator of the FCC hearing, spoke to an FCC generally supportive of developing and enforcing standards that would prohibit Internet providers from blocking or slowing down content from particular peer-to-peer content sharing sites. Several commissioners proposed regulations that would encourage competition among service providers and create an “Internet Bill of Rights” ensuring free access to all content and legal applications.
However, this is not exactly what I came away from the hearing thinking. I thought that we were left wondering what the next steps would be in addressing Comcast’s claim that “its actions fall under the umbrella of ‘reasonable network management’ the FCC excepts from its regulations prohibiting carriers to block access to content.” (same article.)
A post on Slashdot more is closer to what I came away with:
The FCC held its hearing on network neutrality and Comcast today at Harvard. One commentator not afraid to predict what will come of it is O’Reilly’s Andy Orem, who writes:
“The mere announcement of an FCC hearing on ‘broadband network management practices’ was a notch in the gun of network neutrality advocates. Yet to a large extent, the panelists and speakers were like petitioners who are denied access to the king and can only bring their complaints to the gardeners who decorate the paths outside his gate. What we’ll end up getting is a formal endorsement of non-discrimination as a policy that Internet providers must follow, leading to continual FCC review of current practices by telecom and cable companies.”
I feel that these hearings are (obviously?) just the start of what will be a very long process. I think it will take a long time (years?) before any test or rule is articulated by courts or congress that will govern net neutrality effectively.
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