Communications

Cleland said it's "remarkable" that broadband deployment has become a campaign-worthy issue for Branstad, Cuomo and others. "It's exciting because these technology issues are finally getting some of the attention that they deserve."

Bartlett Cleland said Seattle should be cautious about pursuing municipal broadband given a "highly suspect" track history for such projects.

There is "every reason to believe" that the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions "will be consumed" by the ITU, said IPI's Bartlett Cleland.

"Its tendency to overreach its authority has been magnified by the Obama administration’s general contempt for limits on federal authority,” according to the Institute for Policy Innovation. “So we can most likely expect the FCC to once again divert time and effort to a quixotic and almost certainly futile legal battle.

The rent seekers have come running.

IPI comments opposed both petitions because a state has a constitutional right to use its prerogative as a state to restrict municipal broadband.

North Carolina and Tennessee are most likely to be the states where petitions could become a campaign issue because their laws are under FCC scrutiny, but there's not evidence it's a significant issue in state campaigns, said Bartlett Cleland.

IPI President Tom Giovanetti urged the FCC to reject the municipal broadband petitions filed by the Electric Power Board in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and the city of Wilson, North Carolina.

The FCC should stay within its bounds and let the private sector work, said IPI in comments recently filed regarding the Comcast and Time Warner Cable merger review, and additionally in regard to two U.S. cities calling upon the FCC to overturn state laws regulating municipal broadband networks.

Fourteen groups representing free-market advocates opposed to Internet regulation, filed comments with the FCC, calling on the Commission to delay any effort to issue "Network Neutrality" regulations until Congress has provided the agency clear authority to do so.