US appeals court to hear arguments challenging internet reclassification by FCC

04 Aug 2015

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A US appeals court would hear oral arguments on 4 December in lawsuits challenging the Federal Communications Commission's "net neutrality" rules, which prevent broadband providers from blocking or slowing internet traffic, the court said yesterday.

The FCC is being sued by US Telecom, a trade group for broadband providers, and other opponents of the rules, saying the commission violated various laws, regulations and procedures while passing the rules.

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is hearing the dispute.

Meanwhile writing on nj.com, Ev Erlich noted that for most Americans broadband internet was an everyday miracle after internet providers had invested $1.3 trillion in the last two decades and continued to invest about $70 billion each year to keep it that way. He writes that the average peak US speeds, were now nearly 50 megabytes per second.

US entry-level broadband options remained the most affordable in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. US companies had built the backbone for the internet and which was also the platform for services such as Facebook, Apple, Google and Netflix that dominate the new, digital economy.

However, some campaigners in an effort to remake the internet as they think it should be, had urged the FCC to "reclassify" the internet and sought to apply the stringent rules used for yesteryear's telephone system to broadband.

While on the surface that looked like defining ''a car as a horse-drawn cart with an engine'', the worrying part was that the "reclassification" demanded a U-turn on the decisions that led to today's remarkable internet.

In 1996, the Clinton Administration realising that the "information superhighway" was taking shape sought to draft a policy framework that would spur its growth.

An intense battle of ideas resulted, with one camp calling for rigid government supervision of the nascent internet by applying the Depression Era rules developed for the telephone industry. The other camp comprised those including the author himself and most other members of the administration - who recognised that the internet was something different, and could become something spectacular, if companies were allowed to produce it.

Finally, under the bipartisan Telecommunications Act of 1996, the blueprint of the internet era, the view allowing companies to compete prevailed. The new "information superhighway" would not be shackled by old-school phone regulation and competition would ensure it was widely and affordably deployed. However, consumer protection would be guaranteed as it happened. The result was the incredible growth and innovation consumers enjoyed today online.

Ev Ehrlich served as undersecretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs under President Bill Clinton.

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