Groups representing broadband companies, workers and minorities e...
Groups representing broadband companies, workers and minorities expressed concerns that net neutrality rules could undermine broadband investment. The FCC will vote on beginning a net neutrality rulemaking at its meeting Thursday. “Government’s role in the Internet should be to…
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support investment, jobs and new technologies, especially if they increase the opportunity for all Americans to connect online,” said Cisco, Nokia, Motorola and 41 other communications companies in a joint letter to FCC commissioners: “If Internet companies are prohibited from continuing to offer advanced and well-managed networks where new applications and services have flourished, then there will be no incentive to make meaningful investments that further develop and expand rapidly evolving broadband infrastructure.” Telecom is “one of the few dynamic sectors in an otherwise dismal economy,” said Communications Workers of America (CWA) in a separate letter to commissioners. The net neutrality rulemaking should encourage “reasoned discussion among all stakeholders about the technical requirements of network management and the economics of broadband build-out,” CWA said. “Proposed rules that take an extreme position will discourage the reasoned dialogue that is necessary to achieve an appropriate balance between openness and investment.” Meanwhile, the Asian American Justice Center, Hispanic Institute and 18 other national organizations wrote commissioners Wednesday saying neutrality rules could be “particularly detrimental” to minorities. “The core concept of an open Internet, operated transparently, is highly desirable and we support it wholeheartedly,” it said. “But the nation can’t afford to get this wrong.” Broadband providers weighed in late Thursday with their own joint letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. “While your speech promised the kind of open, collaborative approach that we have experienced in the National Broadband inquiry, the NPRM apparently contains highly controversial conclusions before these complex issues are fully explored,” said USTelecom, the CTIA, the Telecommunications Industry Association and the Independent Telephone & Telecommunications Alliance. “We respectfully suggest that you instead begin this process by attempting to develop consensus on the key issues and avoid conclusions that would cause divisions inside and outside the Commission.”