ISPs Fully Committed to Net Neutrality Protections, USTelecom Chief Says
ISPs have made “an ironclad commitment” to maintain net neutrality protection and will keep their promises, USTelecom President Jonathan Spalter said in an interview on C-SPAN’s The Communicators, set to be telecast this weekend. USTelecom was a leading proponent of the FCC order that largely scrapped the 2015 rules (see 1712140039). But Spalter counseled against hysteria after the FCC’s vote: “We need to take a step back from … fear. We live in a very contentious environment and very contentious political moment.”
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ISPs are committed to no blocking, no throttling and transparency, Spalter said. Those commitments existed before the 2015 order and will exist after the latest order takes effect, he said. The internet shouldn’t be “treated as a public utility,” which is what Title II classification did, he said. Some internet users like their service and some don’t, Spalter said. “I haven’t met a single internet user who wants their internet service to look more like their gas company or their water company,” he said.
Spalter said USTelecom agrees with the FCC’s decision to allow paid prioritization of traffic that favors some content and applications. “There are many important reasons why broadband data and broadband traffic should be prioritized,” he said. Spalter cited the priority first responders will get on FirstNet, and demands made by driverless cars and healthcare. “Prioritization already is reality,” he said. Getting better internet connections in more places will require “smart and wise policies” that “incent more investment on the part of broadband providers,” Spalter said. Because of the widespread deployment of 4G LTE, almost every American has a choice of broadband providers, he said.
Americans still will have protections after the rules are terminated, Spalter said. The new “cop on the beat” will be the FTC, which is “our nation’s premier consumer protection agency,” he said. “There’s the body of antitrust law that we have, the court system,” he said. “We have 50 [state] attorneys general that have consumers’ backs.” Spalter said he also believes Congress can be counted on to craft rules. “We’ve got work to do to push that log up the hill,” he said.
On infrastructure funding, Spalter said President Donald Trump set a “moon shot goal” of $1 trillion in investment in U.S. infrastructure, and broadband should be a part of that. USTelecom will work with the White House, the FCC and Congress to make sure broadband is a priority in whatever funding package emerges, he said. USTelecom believes broadband will be part of the package, he said.
“Increasingly we all understand, and it is a bipartisan understanding, that broadband is an essential input not only to the American economic future, but our productivity,” he said. Money and streamlining of regulations are both important, he said. Direct grants and subsidies to provide broadband to areas where networks otherwise wouldn’t be built is “an obligation,” he said. “We’re standing up to that obligation.”