WASHINGTON, DC – There must be another way, says the National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA).
Responding to the Federal Communications Commission’s new strategy designed to keep it on track while establishing a national broadband plan in the U.S., NCTA president and CEO Kyle McSlarrow called the proposal “disappointing”.
“We firmly believe that the case for new regulation of the Internet has not been made”, he said in a statement. “We support the goals and many recommendations of the National Broadband Plan. And, as we have repeatedly made clear, we are prepared to work constructively with the FCC, Congress and all policymakers to create an appropriate framework that preserves an open Internet and achieves the goals of the Broadband Plan.”
FCC chairman Genachowski’s “Third Way” broadband framework on net neutrality comes after a court ruling initiated by cable giant Comcast that determined that the FCC had limited oversight over broadband providers.
The Commission’s latest proposal seeks to reclassify the “transmission component of broadband access service” to a “telecommunications service,” while leaving the other components under the label of “information services,” which the FCC has limited authority over.
“Nothing has occurred either in the marketplace or in broadband technology to change the fact that our broadband services are ‘information services,’ and not ‘telecommunications services’ that are regulated under a model designed for a previous era and for very different services”, McSlarrow continued. “Thus, as part of the process outlined today by the Chairman, we will continue to make the case that the better course is to develop a solution that reflects the longstanding and bipartisan view that all components of the Internet should be subject at most to limited regulation under Title I.”
