WASHINGTON-The Federal Trade Commission is creating a task force to evaluate the thorny subject of network neutrality, although the FTC chairman told a Colorado audience Aug. 21 that she does not think there is a problem.
“The FTC’s Internet Access Task Force is looking carefully at the issues raised by calls for network-neutrality laws. I urge caution in proceeding on this issue. I start by admitting my surprise at how quickly so many of our nation’s successful firms have jumped in to urge the government to regulate. I rarely meet a person in business who does not profess support for a free market, who does not long for the government to keep its nose out of the business. But nonetheless, when fear of marketplace disadvantage arises, there is a tendency to quickly turn to government to seek protection or help,” said FTC Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras at the Progress & Freedom Foundation’s Aspen Summit. “We should not forget that we already have in place an existing law enforcement and regulatory structure. Before adding to it, we should determine that the current scheme is insufficient to address potential issues as they arise in this area. Three federal agencies, including the FTC, the Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission, play a role in protecting competition in this market.”
The wireless industry has been largely ignored in the network-neutrality debate even though the nation’s two largest carriers already restrict access to Voice over Internet Protocol, video and other bandwidth-hogging services. The prohibitions contained in data customer contracts are done for service-quality reasons, the carriers claim.
Business offerings are structured with services and applications being exclusive (on-deck) or generally available via the Internet (off-deck). The wireless marketplace has been dominated by data available on the deck-the carrier’s menu of applications and services on a mobile phone. Recently, though, that has begun to change as the amount of off-deck traffic has grown to as much as 25 percent.
The problem with Majoras’ initial analysis, said a think tank devoted to digital-age issues, is that there is no competition.
“We certainly look forward to the analysis of an agency that exists to protect competition of the broadband market, in which 98 percent of customers receive their service from either the telephone company or the cable company, if they have any choice at all. There are no market forces at work here, much as Chairman Majoras wishes there to be,” said Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn.
The FTC task force comes as industry and consumer groups wait to find out if Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, can get 59 of his colleagues to join with him in considering the telecommunications-reform bill his committee passed in June. Under Senate procedure, a senator can filibuster-talk until an item is withdrawn-unless 60 members vote to stop the filibuster. Stevens is working to get 60 senators to vote against a filibuster threatened by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.). Wyden says the Communications Act of 2006 as passed out of the Senate Commerce Committee does not contain a strong network-neutrality provision.
Network neutrality has become a partisan issue with all of the Senate Commerce Committee Democrats voting for a stronger net-neutrality provision. As a Republican, Majoras kept to form and argued for a wait-and-see approach.
“Dangers typically lie in legislating without clear evidence demonstrating the problem we wish to solve. Legislating precisely is tough enough; it can be difficult to choose the right words to cover situations that you want to cover, while excluding those you do not-especially given that no one knows what new situations will arise. Legislating without specific factual scenarios as anchors is even more difficult.”
