Cable Has Responsibility to Open Internet, Wheeler Tells Cable Show
LOS ANGELES -- Cable industry opponents of net neutrality should put away their “party hats,” FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler told the NCTA’s Cable Show Wednesday. It was a speech several attendees described as having an angry or scolding tone. Echoing a blog post Tuesday (see separate story in this issue), Wheeler warned the cable industry that his net neutrality proposal has been mischaracterized as favorable to net neutrality opponents, and that cable has an obligation to uphold the “availability, security and openness” of the Internet. The cable industry’s “limited regulation” in the broadband world is “an unusual situation,” Wheeler said. “The only way to maintain this situation is to uphold your responsibilities."
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The speech seemed intended to show advocates for net neutrality that Wheeler is committed to the open Internet, several cable industry officials told us. Wheeler’s initial proposal on net neutrality was heavily criticized by pro-open Internet organizations, and one cable executive said the speech was likely to have more effect on them than on the cable operators Wheeler addressed. Since cable operators haven’t been blocking content, Wheeler’s plan to get tough on those who do doesn’t mean a change for operators’ businesses, the executive said.
Wheeler’s speech reaffirmed many of the points raised in his earlier blog post: He’s willing to reclassify the Internet under Title II if he has to, and that net neutrality NPRM on circulation is a notice seeking comment rather than a finished rule. Briefly interviewing Wheeler on stage after the chairman’s speech, NCTA Chairman Michael Powell called Wheeler’s speech “forceful” and “full of content.” The cable industry “might disagree that we're an impending threat to the network,” Powell said.
Wheeler seemed to be arguing that because the industry hadn’t faced a great deal of regulation in the broadband sphere, it owes something. “From those to whom much has been given, much is to be expected,” Wheeler said. That’s not likely to resonate well with cable operators, said Fletcher Heald attorney Thomas Doherty, who represents clients in cable transactions. “They're going to be offended.” Cable networks were constructed by cable companies rather than the government, he said. “It’s usually better to work with companies instead of being confrontational.”
Even so, Doherty and other industry officials said it’s unlikely that Wheeler will get a strong negative reaction to his speech from the cable industry. With Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Charter Communications all involved in huge pending transactions (see separate report in this issue), cable industry advocates will be unlikely to attack the FCC, said Doherty and a consumer electronics official who works with cable companies.
Not everyone found the tone of the speech objectionable. Wheeler has long said he wants to reinstate net neutrality rules, and his speech at the Cable Show was simply reaffirming that, one cable lobbyist told us. Wheeler’s plan for net neutrality is consistent with his past stance on the issue, the lobbyist said. The speech seemed intended more to make Wheeler’s stance clear than to antagonize cable operators, said American Cable Association President Matt Polka. “I think he wanted to set the record straight about what he’s trying to accomplish,” Polka said.
Wheeler said the FCC’s Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council work group on cybersecurity should be an industry-led effort to “proactively assess cyber readiness within your companies, communicate your risk assessments with your boardrooms and share relevant elements of the assessments between partners in the larger ecosystem.” The results should be implemented by the industry over the course of the year, he said. “We're intending this to be a new regulatory paradigm, and we're giving you the opportunity to write it,” Wheeler said. “I urge you to step up, so we don’t have to.”
The cable industry should offer “good service and good deals” to schools and libraries under the E-rate program the same way it has to businesses, Wheeler said. Municipally owned broadband should be able to compete in the market, he said. “If municipal governments -- the same ones that granted cable franchises -- want to pursue it, they shouldn’t be inhibited by state laws,” he said. The FCC has the power to preempt state laws that ban competition from community broadband, Wheeler said. “And I intend to exercise that power.”