Below is an excerpt of the Open Technology Institute's comments to the Federal Communications Commission in the matter of the Open Internet Remand. To download the full comments in PDF form, click here. To view the comments on the FCC's website, click here.
While we were relieved to see the Chairman’s reference to “keeping Title II on the table” in his statement accompanying the Public Notice, we were very discouraged by the lack of reference to Title II of the Telecommunications Act in the actual Public Notice released by the Commission. Title II is critical to both the ability of the Commission to implement meaningful network neutrality protections and the ability of the Commission to address many other serious questions related to broadband such as interconnection and peering, universal access, and privacy.
The Commission has a clearly defined framework for policy interventions at its disposal, built on the fundamental principle of common carriage that has underscored communications policy in the United States for over a century. By reclassifying broadband as a Title II service, the Commission can apply that framework in a modernized way, and can specifically address longstanding concerns identified by advocates, the United States D.C. Court of Appeals, and the Supreme Court of the United States. We believe that the record is already well established for reclassification, and that the appropriate next step for the Commission is simply to reclassify broadband as a Title II service. At the very least, however, the Commission must not foreclose reclassification by either directing all attention in this proceeding toward analysis of authority under Section 706 or explicitly determining, without further consideration, that Title II is not a politically viable path forward.
To that point, the comments below represent an initial and brief explanation of the need for reclassification. We certainly hope that the forthcoming NPRM provides further opportunities for discussion about the need for and value of Title II as a regulatory framework in a modern communications age, as the Public Notice does not sufficiently address these issues. We further hope that as the Commission is considering its authority to implement Open Internet protections in the wired broadband context, that it also remembers that it has strong authority for policy interventions in the wireless context. The Commission should therefore take this opportunity to revisit its weaker wireless Open Internet protections as it addresses the authority issue more broadly.
