Telecommunications
Communications law to be reviewed
Two top Democratic legislators said Monday that they would begin a process to modernize telecommunications laws that were last overhauled in 1996 but barely mention the Internet.
Senator John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia, chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, and Representative Henry A. Waxman of California, chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, said in a joint statement that they would hold meetings in June to examine how the Communications Act meets the current needs of consumers, the telecommunications industry and the Federal Communications Commission.
The issue came into focus in April when a federal appeals court ruled that the F.C.C. had overstepped its authority in applying a portion of the Communications Act to an Internet service provider.
In response, the F.C.C. announced a plan this month to reclassify broadband Internet service, which is now lightly regulated as an information service. Under the change, it would be classified as a telecommunications service, similar to basic telephone service, and would therefore come under more scrutiny by the agency.
The reclassification would give the commission the authority to implement portions of its recently released National Broadband Plan, as well as to enforce net neutrality, the concept that Internet service providers must provide consumers with equal access to all types of content and applications.
Internet service providers have generally opposed the proposed reclassification, arguing that the F.C.C. has the authority it needs to ensure fair competition among Internet service providers. They also are wary because the reclassification could give the F.C.C. the authority to regulate rates charged to customers.
Telecommunications firms also argue that a lack of legislation has not stifled competition among Internet companies.
James Cicconi, a senior executive vice president at AT&T, said the company welcomed the Congressional review.
"The F.C.C.'s legal authority should be decided by the Congress itself, and not by applying to the Internet a set of onerous rules designed for a different technology, a different situation, and a different era," he said.
Consumer groups also hailed the efforts. "The world has changed considerably since 1996," said Gigi B. Sohn, president and co-founder of Public Knowledge, a public interest group.
Any overhaul is likely to take some time. Congress has little time left on this session’s calendar. And it took more than five years to produce the 1996 Telecommunications Act, which itself was the first major overhaul of telecommunications law since the Communications Act of 1934.
(Published by The New York Times – May 24, 2010)