The paid peering deal between Comcast and Netflix, which would have the online video distributor collocating close to the cable ISP’s facilities to speed delivery, has drawn criticism from public interest groups. It’s just one more step toward a future in which companies that can afford to pay get better treatment, on a medium that should be treated like any other utility, they say. Free-market proponents say the deal is driven by simple laws of supply and demand: Netflix takes up much of ISPs’ capacity, and it only makes sense it would pay more to defray the costs. Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam told CNBC Monday his company had a similar deal with Netflix in the works. Paid peering deals have become increasingly common in recent years (CD July 1 p1).
The paid peering deal between Comcast and Netflix, which would have the online video distributor collocating close to the cable ISP’s facilities to speed delivery, has drawn criticism from public interest groups. It’s just one more step toward a future in which companies that can afford to pay get better treatment, on a medium that should be treated like any other utility, the groups say.
Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., long one of the top members of the House on communications policy, said Monday he won’t seek reelection. Dingell had been considered a candidate for top Democrat on the House Commerce Committee, a committee he long chaired when Democrats ran the House. “That time has come,” Dingell, 87, said Monday in his State of the District speech to the Southern Wayne County Regional Chamber of Commerce, according to prepared remarks (http://1.usa.gov/1eq1uHv). “I have ten months more in Congress, and I'm not going to waste a minute. There’s still a lot to be done and a lot I want to do.”
The paid peering deal between Comcast and Netflix, which would have the online video distributor collocating close to the cable ISP’s facilities to speed delivery, has drawn criticism from public interest groups. It’s just one more step toward a future in which companies that can afford to pay get better treatment, on a medium that should be treated like any other utility, they say. Free-market proponents say the deal is driven by simple laws of supply and demand: Netflix takes up much of ISPs’ capacity, and it only makes sense it would pay more to defray the costs. Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam told CNBC Monday his company had a similar deal with Netflix in the works. Paid peering deals have become increasingly common in recent years (WID July 1 p1).
Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., long one of the top members of the House on communications policy, said Monday he won’t seek reelection. Dingell had been considered a candidate for top Democrat on the House Commerce Committee, a committee he long chaired when Democrats ran the House. “That time has come,” Dingell, 87, said Monday in his State of the District speech to the Southern Wayne County Regional Chamber of Commerce, according to prepared remarks (http://1.usa.gov/1eq1uHv). “I have ten months more in Congress, and I'm not going to waste a minute. There’s still a lot to be done and a lot I want to do.”
Recent high-profile data breaches have spurred the FTC and Congress to accentuate the need for heightened authority for the commission to regulate data security. One company is trying to take away that authority altogether.
A Comcast purchase of Time Warner Cable is unlikely to lead to a resurrection of the horizontal ownership cap limiting the portion of national subscribers a cable company can serve, and any FCC move to bring back such a cap is unlikely to affect the $45 billion deal, said analysts, cable attorneys and public interest groups in interviews. The FCC’s former cap was twice struck down by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, but Comcast raised the issue again when it said the terms of the proposed Time Warner Cable deal would include a voluntary divestiture of 3 million subscribers to stay under the old cap’s 30 percent threshold (CD Feb 14 p3). A Comcast spokeswoman told us Friday that the divestiture is intended to “assuage concerns” about the size of the new company.
The FCC’s potential foray into preemption of state laws blocking municipal broadband has industry watchers split. Some say there’s no question the agency has the authority to step in; others point to a Supreme Court case they say ties the agency’s hands. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said Wednesday the agency would explore its authority to remove the state restrictions (CD Feb 20 p1). Wheeler’s announcement was part of the FCC’s plan to revamp its net neutrality rules in the wake of the Verizon v. FCC decision (CD Jan 16 p1).
The FCC’s potential foray into preemption of state laws blocking municipal broadband has industry watchers split. Some say there’s no question the agency has the authority to step in; others point to a Supreme Court case they say ties the agency’s hands. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said Wednesday the agency would explore its authority to remove the state restrictions (WID Feb 20 p1). Wheeler’s announcement was part of the FCC’s plan to revamp its net neutrality rules in the wake of the Verizon v. FCC decision (WID Jan 16 p3).
A top House Republican will likely introduce a bill Friday to stop the FCC from reinstating net neutrality rules. House Commerce Committee Vice Chairwoman Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., is going to reintroduce a new version of her Internet Freedom Act, which she introduced as HR-96 in 2011. Blackburn’s proposed bill directly counters legislation that Democrats in the House and Senate introduced in early February, the Open Internet Preservation Act, which would reinstate the FCC net neutrality rules. A wide swath of lobbyists have said no net neutrality legislation of any kind is likely to move (CD Feb 3 p5), a point observers reiterated Thursday.