Groups urge FCC to treat broadband as telecom service

Consumer advocates are urging the FCC to reclassify high-speed Internet access as a telecommunications service, a major change that would have sweeping implications for cable and phone providers of broadband.

Telecommunications offerings are more heavily regulated, which can mean price controls, allowing competitors access to infrastructure and tighter control of network architecture.

Since telecom carriers must permit nondiscriminatory access to their infrastructure, they would likely have to meet the requirement through strict adherence to network neutrality restrictions, explained Mark Cooper, director of research for the Consumer Federation of America. The FCC's net neutrality guidelines were introduced as voluntary, though the agency insists it can enforce them.

"It would mean going back to a 100-year-old regulatory structure for an innovative new technology that's still being developed," responded Brian Dietz, spokesman for the National Cable and Telecommunications Association.

Emphasizing that broadband companies manage their networks to provide optimal customer experiences, he warned, "This would put the government in charge of these kinds of everyday broadband decisions."

The proposals were made in the first round of comments on the FCC's national broadband plan, an ambitious strategy to be implemented by the next agency chairman, Julius Genachowski, who is awaiting confirmation.

Comments were pouring in by Monday's deadline, sometimes from unexpected voices, such as the American Farm Bureau and the government of Japan. Free Press, Consumer Federation of America and Consumers Union were among the watchdogs to recommend the reclassification, despite an FCC declaration a few years ago that cable broadband is a lightly regulated information service.

In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the FCC in its "Brand X case," prompting the agency to categorize telecom-delivered broadband also as lightly regulated.

In its comments, Free Press, which recently hosted a policy event featuring Susan Crawford, special assistant to the president for science, technology and innovation policy, to President Obama, said the change would "give the commission the tools required to promote competition through the reinstatement of network sharing rules if a competition analysis indicates this is needed."

The two large consumer groups argued that the change is necessary to ensure that the federal universal service fund, which subsidizes telecom connections in rural and impoverished areas, can be expanded to include subsidies for residential broadband service.

"We think it's the only way to really jump start the universal service process and get broadband to" the roughly 40 percent of the population that doesn't subscribe, Cooper said.

Stifel Nicolaus managing director Blair Levin, who worked on technology matters for President Obama's transition team, has been hired by the FCC to coordinate the broadband plan. During the Clinton administration, Levin served as chief of staff to then-FCC Chairman Reed Hundt.