ISPs to FCC: Don't Bypass Courts, Classify Broadband as Phone Service

In a strongly-worded 14-page letter to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Julius Genachowski, the nation’s largest internet service providers Monday cautioned the agency that reclassifying broadband internet services from an “information service” to a “telecommunication service” would have “far-reaching and destructive consequences,” including deterring continued broadband investment and innovation.

The “extremist” move to regulate internet service in a similar manner to telephone service, which some observers called a transparent, albeit indirect ploy to enact net neutrality, “would be untenable as a legal matter, and, at a minimum, would plunge the industry into years of litigation and regulatory chaos,” the letter read.

Signed by Verizon, AT&T, Time Warner, and Qwest, among others, the letter comes amid an important federal appeals court decision in the larger net neutrality debate, in which a ruling against the FCC would likely derail the agency’s quest to institute “open internet” regulations.

Presently, broadband is classified as an information service, which is marginally subject to FCC jurisdiction, though liberal interest groups and national Democrats favor reclassifying ISPs as common carrier services, which would solidify the agency’s regulatory powers over the internet — and ultimately threaten competition among network, service and content providers. Furthermore, according to one tech policy expert, such a reclassification (under Title II) would result in the broadband industry being subjected to the same rules as the monopoly telephone companies of the early 1930’s–a framework that many observers doubt is appropriate for the Internet.

“In short, the Commission should keep this Pandora’s Box of Title II classification nailed shut,” the companies warned in the letter. “[T]he commission cannot seriously think that layering a 75-year-old regulatory structure on modern broadband facilities will not harm current and future levels of broadband investment.”