21 March 2006
In a quiet move full of implications for the future openness of the Internet, the FCC has granted Verizon relief from any common carriage requirements in the company's broadband offerings. But instead of conducting a full, public inquiry into the issue, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin elected simply to allow Verizon's petition for forbearance from Title II (common carriage) rules to expire without commission action, effectively giving the company exactly what it wanted.
Martin apparently got what he wanted, too, declaring in a joint statement with Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate that "promoting broadband deployment is one of the highest priorities of the FCC. To accomplish this goal, the Commission seeks to establish a policy environment that facilitates and encourages broadband investment, allowing market forces to deliver the benefits of broadband to consumers.… This relief will enable Verizon to have the flexibility to further deploy its broadband services and fiber facilities without overly burdensome regulations."
Among those allegedly burdensome regulations, Commissioner Michael Copps pointed out in a spirited critique of the commission's "inaction," are many of the public interest safeguards that have long governed telecommunications, including Universal Service, privacy, disability access, consumer rights, rural service, and interconnections with other carriers and technologies. " It would have been far better to deny this petition and begin … a [full] proceeding here," Copps explained. "The Commission fails to take that course. Instead, this sweeping outcome is unaccompanied by any regulatory footsteps. Here we permit a forbearance petition go into effect that erases decades of communications policy in a single stroke. In effect, we provide industry the pen and give it the go-ahead to rewrite the law."
Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein shared Copps' concern over the full implications of the regulatory relief granted to Verizon. " By failing to act, the Commission abdicates oversight of the telecommunications services used by America’s most technology-dependent consumers," Adelstein observed. "This course raises the specter of price hikes and fewer choices for businesses, banks, universities, government agencies and other high volume users of communications services, in addition to consumers in Rural America."
According to CDD Executive Director Jeff Chester, "Instead of protecting Internet users, consumers, and citizens, Chairman Martin has further eroded the public interest potential of digital communications. He should resign. It's clear he is more loyal to the interests of broadband monopolist than the public at large."