U.S. presidential hopeful Jeb Bush this week sharply criticised the Federal Communications Commission’s net neutrality law, which suggests its days would be numbered if he is elected in 2016.
The former governor of Florida cited the Open Internet Order as an example of regulation serving special interests rather than citizens, in a diatribe called "the regulatory crisis in Washington", published on his Website on Tuesday.
"Rather than enhancing consumer welfare, these rules prohibit one group of companies (ISPs) from charging another group of companies (content companies) the full cost for using their services," he wrote.
According to Bush, KWISP, an ISP serving 475 customers in rural Illinois, and Wisper, which provides broadband to 8,000 customers near St. Louis, Missouri, have declared that the Net Neutrality rules have caused them to cut back on network investment.
If elected, Bush said he will usher in "more robust congressional oversight", particularly when it comes to "critical regulations that impose outsized burdens on the economy."
His comments this week will have doubtless been well received by opponents of the FCC’s net neutrality rules, who recently changed tactics in a bid to have them overturned.
USTelecom, AT&T, CenturyLink, the National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA), CTIA, the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association (WISPA), and the Americ an Cable Association (ACA) argued in a July court filing that the FCC exceeded the bounds of its authority when it adopted its new Open Internet Order.
"Congress never envisioned entrusting the FCC with the extraordinary authority that the Order purports to exercise," the group said, adding that the watchdog was wrong to reclassify Internet services as a telecommunication service rather than an information service.
Adopted in February, the Open Internet Order’s reclassification of broadband subjected it to regulation under Title II of the Communications Act. It prevents broadband providers from blocking access to legal content, applications, and services. ‘Non-harmful’ devices must also not be prevented from connecting to networks.
Broadband providers are also banned from degrading the performance of Internet services on the basis of content, application or service.
In addition, broadband providers may not favour some lawful Internet traffic over others in exchange for consideration of any kind – otherwise known as paid prioritisation.
The rules do permit service providers to carry out reasonable network management to ensure the smooth running of their services, but the FCC said it must not be used for commercial purposes.
Title II also gives the FCC the authority to weigh into interconnection disputes and take enforcement action if it determines that the actions of an ISP in regard to exchanging traffic with another provider are not just or reasonable.
USTelecom et al said the net neutrality rules represent "a sweeping bureaucratic power grab by a self-appointed ‘Department of the Internet’."
This week though, the Internet Association, which counts Amazon, eBay, Google, Facebook, Twitter and Yahoo among its membership, filed court documents supporting the Open Internet Order.
"Internet companies and their users demand an open Internet, free of throttling, blocking, and other forms of discriminati on online," said Michael Beckerman, CEO of the Internet Association, in a statement on Monday. "The FCC created strong, enforceable rules that prevent gatekeepers from censoring the Internet, and the order should be upheld by the court."
Should Bush win the GOP nomination and emerge victorious in next year’s election, he will find himself in the middle of an increasingly acrimonious dispute between some very powerful, deep-pocketed corporations.
