A recent court decision said that the FCC lacked jurisdiction to regulate broadband providers regarding things like net neutrality,* because the Bush era reclassification of broadband as “information” rather than “telecommunications” services meant that they had no statutory authority.
It also meant that if they reclassify broadband as “telecommunications,” again this is a finding of fact, which gives them jurisdiction.
Well, the Chairman of the FCC, Julius Genachowski, has now detailed plans to reverse this finding, which is a good thing, but he seems determined to find a “3rd way”, where he would use “forbearance,” basically not doing all that they could, to create a, “a light regulatory approach that would still encourage investment in broadband.”
I guess that Genachowski misses the point that the light touch doesn’t “encourage investment in broadband,” instead it creates a situation in which the incumbents use their resources to keep competitors out, not to improve service, which is why the US has the worst broadband penetration, and worst broadband performance, in the industrialized world.
If you want better broadband in the US, you need your foot on the neck of the cable companies and the baby Bells. Period, full stop.
*Sorry for linking to a Declan McCullagh story, it was the first that I found. He is, as Andrew Orlowsky notes, a “Draw by crayon libertarian,”†and so he quotes uncritically industry-funded astroturf groups in his article.
†He is also the guy who created the, “Al Gore claimed to have invented the Internet,” myth, and he remains proud of that bit of hackery.