Clyburn, Matsui and Rosenworcel Unite to Pressure Wheeler on Net Neutrality

The current FCC proposal is “severely flawed,” Matsui said, saying it violates the principles that “all data must be treated equally.” The NPRM calls for allowing paid prioritization deals, which would “dramatically reshuffle the digital deck” and create a scenario where “consumer choice will be at the mercy of the highest bidder,” she said. Matsui called it “a tax on innovation and consumer choice.” Clyburn and Rosenworcel had voted in favor of moving forward with that NPRM.

Matsui introduced legislation earlier this year that would ban prioritization deals. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., introduced a Senate companion, and Leahy held his own hearing on net neutrality earlier this month.

"We cannot have a two-tiered Internet, with fast lanes that speed the traffic of the privileged and leave the rest of us lagging behind,” Rosenworcel said. “Paid prioritization can be a tax on innovation.” Clyburn emphasized both fixed and mobile broadband. “One trend is clear -- the increased reliance on mobile broadband,” she said. She mentioned the rise in LTE deployment and Wi-Fi. “We need to be careful, to avoid creating differing or conflicting standards or rules for Wi-Fi and mobile,” she said.

Clyburn, Matsui and Rosenworcel scolded the FCC for holding its net neutrality roundtables only in Washington. Matsui has urged the FCC for months to “take the net neutrality show on the road,” she said. Clyburn said she believes “it is important to hear the views of interested parties outside of the Beltway.” Rosenworcel wished the agency were “open to more” than holding net neutrality roundtables “inside the building, inside the Beltway,” she said. “I wish all my colleagues were here.” The FCC declined comment.

Some net neutrality advocates have said any NPRM must reclassify broadband as a Communications Act Title II telecom service to ban priority agreements, which others strongly dispute. The NPRM lays out the possibility of crafting rules under Section 706, but FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has said repeatedly that Title II reclassification is an active option. Some speakers urged reclassification, but Clyburn, Matsui and Rosenworcel at the forum did not explicitly mention any preference for legal authority. Rosenworcel said she is “pleased” that Wheeler said “all options, including Title II, remain on the table.”

"As the FCC moves forward to consider permanent rules, my focus will be on the impact on consumers -- something that I fear has gotten lost in this debate over 706 versus Title II,” Clyburn said. “The legal issues are, of course, important but to me it puts the cart before the horse. The critical question, as I see it, is first, determining the right policy, and when that is established, then and only then, determine the appropriate legal framework to achieve that result.”

Speakers Aligned in Advocacy

A Democratic California regulator also spoke. That agency put on hold comments to the FCC net neutrality NPRM earlier this month (CD Sept 12 p4).

"To protect an open Internet, the FCC must use both Section 706 and Title II with forbearance and a light regulatory touch,” said Cathy Sandoval, a commissioner on the California Public Utilities Commission and vice chairman of the NARUC Telecom Committee. She lauded Clyburn and Rosenworcel for the reluctance expressed in their support of the agency’s net neutrality NPRM. “Both of you said that you would have done it differently, and I concur,” she said. “The FCC’s NPRM doesn’t even mention the impact on other common carriers or TTY.” Sandoval emphasized the importance of open Internet connections to critical infrastructure and described consequences that she called “deadly” and “cascading.” She brought up how crucial telehealth has become in helping stroke patients and burn victims with their rapid needs, help that could be affected by a wrongly revamped set of Internet traffic rules. The Lifeline program “could have its verification efforts frustrated,” she added, describing California consumers who verify eligibility through Internet-enabled applications.

Rosenworcel asked Chris Kelly, Facebook’s former counsel and founder of Kelly Investments, about big websites that would have run into trouble if paid prioritization had factored in. Kelly pointed to Facebook. “It would have been an incredible challenge to go through these negotiations with major telecommunications providers,” Kelly said, saying such prioritization deals are something “startups shouldn’t be thinking of most of the time.” Startups “would be deeply harmed by the innovation tax that is paid prioritization,” he said. The many comments the FCC has received on net neutrality this year emanate from concern about the proposal, he said. “Distribution is the coin of the realm in Internet businesses,” Kelly said. “Capital’s going to freeze up and fairly quickly."

Public TV viewers must have “full, unrestricted access,” said KVIE Public Television Sacramento President David Lowe, noting the rise of public TV stations putting content online, “on whatever platform [users] wish to receive it.” He declined specific comment on the FCC proposal. “An open Internet is not a privilege for the affluent,” Sacramento Public Library Director Rivkah Sass said, calling for a ban on the practice and worrying about a prioritization “scheme” widening the “gap between the haves and the have-nots.” Screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg, who wrote the Twilight film screenplays and belongs to the Writers Guild of America, West, called for reclassification and emphasized the importance of online video content as a competitor to traditional consolidated media markets. She is working on a show for Netflix now. The FCC NPRM would mean “a tiered Internet,” she said, “allowing ISPs to push aside new competition.”

"I have personally heard from hundreds of my own constituents here in Sacramento about the importance of preserving the open Internet,” Matsui said, pledging to take the lessons of the event to the leaders of House Commerce and the Communications Subcommittee. “I've never seen the FCC as engaged as it has been recently.” (jhendel@warren-news.com)