High-Tech Associations Pursue Broad Neutrality Accords, Separately
Choice is alive and well in U.S. broadband, at least when it comes to efforts by tech industry associations to broker net neutrality solutions. They've arisen in the uncertainty after a federal appeals court rejected the FCC’s claimed authority to act against Comcast in the BitTorrent case. The leaders of TechNet and the Information Technology Industry Council each said his organization has been working behind the scenes toward agreement among players including the incumbent wired broadband providers.
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They're shy publicly about many details. “We're going to bring some folks together,” said TechNet CEO Rey Ramsey. But Ramsey disclaimed any attempt to substitute for action by the FCC or Congress. He said his organization seeks an agreement that would apply for however long it takes policymakers to resolve the situation. Ramsey emphasized his desire for the commission to have a clear field to follow up on National Broadband Plan recommendations to expand the availability and use of high-speed access. He said that before the court decision he had considered the FCC’s authority a “close call."
Dean Garfield, the ITI’s CEO, said his association is working to head off legal challenges to any effort by the FCC to impose neutrality rules in the face of the commission’s defeat this month in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. “There’s an opportunity here to find a solution that doesn’t involve the courts."
Garfield said his effort is guided by a desire for a “resolution that gives some certainty to the marketplace” about the commission’s involvement in Internet services. A balance must be found that also protects consumers, he said. Garfield said his goal is for “the key players that are impacted” to produce “a framework for how the FCC moves forward” around the “roadblock” of the Comcast case.
Neither Ramsey nor Garfield said his group has sounded out anyone at the FCC about its efforts. Garfield said the ITI has been in touch with unspecified “members and staff on the Hill” and with cable and other technology companies outside the Council in addition to members.
Ramsey said he has discussed with carriers’ representatives the major sticking point of how much leeway ISPs should be allowed to manage their networks, and he will meet with AT&T and Verizon. He also said he has “reached out to Free Press,” a supporter of neutrality rules. “While we support any effort to shine a bright light on bad actors in the marketplace, there is no substitute for enforceable rules of the road,” a Free Press spokeswoman said Wednesday. “Self-regulation in the telecom sector will work about as well as it did in the banking sector."
Ramsey said he has been working in this direction since he arrived at TechNet in January from the nonprofit One Economy, where he remains the chairman. But it was the Comcast v. FCC ruling that got things moving, Ramsey said. Garfield was an MPAA vice president until he joined the ITI in fall 2008.
Neither Garfield nor Ramsey promised to bridge the division over neutrality. “There are layers upon layers of complexity here,” Garfield said. The key is not to try to solve the whole problem at once but to start with something simple to make progress, he said. Garfield and Ramsey each said he’s an optimist.
And neither Ramsey nor Garfield expressed worry that their separate efforts would undercut each other. The groups are similar enough in makeup and purpose to bump up against each other, especially in an economy like that of recent years, when member companies examine more closely than they had the costs and payoffs of their association affiliations (CD Sept 9/09 p8). A source close to TechNet said it rejected a 2007 merger offer from ITI. There have been rumblings about sharp elbows and bruised feelings afterward.
Ramsey said he wants to “align these efforts.” Garfield said the situation offers “a great deal of opportunity to work together.” He said he and Ramsey regularly talk with each other.