The FCC asked for comments by today to address how it can best advance universal service, privacy, access to communications for disabled individuals and security on the Internet.
Or, cutting through the clutter, whether it should subject broadband Internet services to archaic phone regulations after the courts said it did not currently have the authority to regulate broadband at all.
To be fair, the FCC has asserted on numerous occasions that the point of this inquiry, and agency actions in general, was never to subject the Internet to further regulatory control. However, the multiple inquiries as to how to do so and the statements coming from some commissioners seem to argue otherwise.
Regardless, IPI again filed comments to underscore that the answer to the question, no matter how many times it is asked, is we should not burden broadband with the weight of archaic regulations. While government could be helpful by identifying those places where broadband is not available, via broadband mapping, and by creating broadband enterprise zones so that a business case can be made to reach some of those unserved areas, government is not helpful when it raises costs and hence depresses access to, and adoption of, broadband.
Of particular concern is that regulatory compliance increases costs, which in turn makes it harder for those in already hard-to-serve areas to have a variety of broadband options. Even if a program such as the broadband enterprise zone was put in place, it is quite possible that all the economic incentive could be drained off by the increase in regulatory costs.
So, one might ask, why the great need to regulate? As all objective data indicate, there is a very aggressive ongoing private sector broadband rollout, which is driving investment and job creation. New regulations will put that very investment and those jobs at risk, and for no good reason.
We have urged that government policy leverage and supplement, rather than devalue, this tremendous current and ongoing private investment in broadband infrastructure. We have also made a specific suggestion for broadband enterprise zones to address those areas where demand is insufficient or where market forces have thus far proven insufficient. And we have urged policymakers to not return to failed policies of yesterday’s archaic systems of communications and regulations.
Hopefully someone is listening.