To All: Here is the latest in the struggle in DC over Network Neutrality.
Chuck Sherwood
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [cc-mediareform] Anti-Net open Groups hire Mike McCurry
Date: Sat, 08 Apr 2006 08:21:12 -0400 (EDT)
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
(we need to counter-frame, attack, and expose this asap.)
April 8, 2006
http://www.njtelecomupdate.com/lenya/telco/live/tb-THLC1144441382252.html
Technology Daily
Coalition Formed To Fight
'Network Neutrality' Rules
By Drew Clark
(Friday, April 10) AT&T and a group of free-market conservative
organizations have joined a prominent Democrat -- former Clinton White
House Press Secretary Michael McCurry -- to seek to eliminate all "network
neutrality" provisions from pending House telecommunications legislation.
At least four conservative nonprofits are part of a newly formed coalition
called "Hands Off the Internet," which is urging Congress to "say no to
government regulation of the Internet." In addition to AT&T, the telecom
equipment manufacturer Alcatel and Cingular Wireless also are listed as
member organizations.
The House Energy and Commerce Telecommunications and the Internet
Subcommittee Wednesday approved a bill that would grant the FCC the
authority to adjudicate -- but not to regulate -- disputes about network
neutrality.
Advocates of neutrality in the technology sector -- primarily Internet
content companies -- want to prevent the regional Bell operating companies
and the cable industry from discriminating in terms of the use of their
high-speed lines. Energy and Commerce Democrats sought tougher neutrality
rules Wednesday, but were unsuccessful.
Coalition Co-Chairman McCurry said Friday that he wants to sway Democrats,
too.
"Government cannot, in the explosive changes in telecommunications, guess
what a regulatory outcome will look like," he said. "It is easier for a
centrist Democrat to try to make that argument."
Added McCurry, "I believe we made a right decision in the Clinton years to
keep the Internet unregulated, and not to transport the rules of
[telecommunications regulation] to the Internet."
AT&T spokesman Michael Balmoris said that his firm and the rest of the
coalition "recognize that the Internet has flourished and provided
consumers enormous benefits from hands-off government policies."
Balmoris said he is not concerned that the coalition's strong push against
even limited neutrality rules could undermine the House bill -- which the
company supports.
But the spokesmen for two of the four conservative groups in the coalition
-- American Conservative Union and Frontiers of Freedom -- said they would
be hard-pressed to support the neutrality provisions of the current House
bill.
"It baffles us that this Republican Congress is seeking to regulate a
problem that doesn't even exist," said Jeffrey Mazzella of the Center for
Individual Freedom.
Other organizations rounding out the coalition include
broadband-over-power-line companies, The America Channel, and three
minority-centered organizations, including the National Black Chamber of
Commerce.
Mazzella and Stacie Rumenap of the American Conservative Union said their
groups support the move toward national franchises for new entrants in the
video market.
But it is not acceptable to be "tying the deregulation of one industry to
the regulation of others," Mazzella said, "regardless of any good
legislation that it might be attached to."
Rumenap echoed that sentiment. But she and several others on a Thursday
conference call by conservatives, including Tom Readmond of Americans for
Tax Reform, said they are not willing to concede the need for any
neutrality principles.
"As with anything else in Washington, there is an issue, and so we form a
coalition to address it," said Paul Kenefick, regulatory counsel for
Alcatel.
He said his group's support for the coalition stems from the fact that on
network neutrality, "we just don't think it is good policy to act on
anything beyond what it is in the [House] draft."
Meanwhile, Senate Commerce Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, said Thursday
that the comprehensive telecommunications bill he is drafting would
include provisions designed to prevent telecom and cable operators of
high-speed Internet systems from discriminating against unaffiliated
content providers.
But he is unsure whether a draft measure to ensure "network neutrality" of
content on broadband networks would be part of the broader legislation.
"I don't think we have a consensus yet in our committee," Stevens said.
--Contributing: David Hatch
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