Genachowski, Klobuchar Say Consumer Choice Should Guide Internet Policy
The U.S. must preserve network neutrality, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said at a broadband summit Tuesday at the University of Minnesota. Genachowski said he still feels “very strongly” about enforcing open Internet principles. He also urged Congress to speedily fund a nationwide, interoperable wireless broadband network for public safety.
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"Internet users, not service providers, should be deciding what content and services they get when they go on the Internet,” Genachowski said. The U.S. needs broadband “that is fast, affordable and open,” he said. “Achieving these goals, including preserving Internet freedom, is essential for consumers, entrepreneurs [and] small businesses everywhere.” The Internet must be “open, secure and accessible to consumers,” said Klobuchar. “We need to make sure consumers maintain control over their online experience."
Meanwhile, the public safety network “is not going to get built by itself,” said Genachowski. Congress must “step up” and prioritize the network as an area for immediate investment, he said. “We need to do it soon, because if we can build out the mobile broadband public safety network while commercial providers are building 4G … we can have significant cost savings.” Genachowski didn’t comment on what to do with the D-block, an issue that’s been the main point of contention in the public safety debate.
Broadband is the innovation and “infrastructure challenge of our time,” said Klobuchar. Broadband cost and speed remain concerns, she said. “It’s like much of the world is whizzing by in flashy new sports cars,” while “too many parts of America are still puttering along in Model T’s.” The U.S. can’t expect to lead the world in technology if innovators “don’t have the tools they need to research and develop” and can’t expect “the next wave of Apples and Amazons to crop up in our country when we don’t have the Internet framework to support them,” she said.
"What she said,” replied Genachowski, adding that people must understand that “standing still is moving backwards.” Expense is a major challenge, and the $7.2 billion set aside for broadband in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act “is not enough to meet the broadband gap that we have in the country,” he said. Additional investment by Congress in the Universal Service Fund would help speed things along, he said. Executing on the National Broadband Plan will go a long way to bridging the divide, he said, but the U.S. is still “in the early innings in terms of [broadband] really becoming a national priority.”