Allowing broadband network owners to discriminate in providing ac...
Allowing broadband network owners to discriminate in providing access to their networks “represents a dramatic change” that would severely limit the growth of the Internet and IP services, according to a white paper by the Consumer Federation of America…
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(CFA). The CFA said it will file the 110-page paper in nearly a dozen FCC and court proceedings, which it said “will define the architecture of the telecommunications network in the 21st century.” CFA defended the open architecture and open access principles in the FCC’s Computer Inquiries the past 3 decades, saying “policy-makers in the U.S. seem to have lost their appreciation for the fundamental importance… of open architecture.” CFA Dir.-Research Mark Cooper said “the Commission is trying to reverse this remarkably successful policy” of open access. “The steadfast refusal of telephone companies and cable operators to negotiate commercial access to their broadband networks, on terms that treat unaffiliated Internet service providers reasonably, makes it clear that the public interest can be promoted only by requiring facility owners to operate open communications networks,” he said. But the CFA said the “fundamental policy decisions are still up in the air” in a series of pending FCC decisions, including inquiries into high-speed cable Internet access, DSL high-speed access and universal service requirements, unbundling proceedings, broadband over power line and wireless broadband. It said the issue also is still in the courts in cases like Brand X. In the paper, the CFA said open networks “support rapid and efficient technological innovation,” as well as such benefits as interconnectivity, new services and lower costs. The paper also said the FCC can’t forebear regulating VoIP including on issues such as E- 911.