Genachowski Appears Leaning Toward Title I for Net Neutrality
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski seems to prefer not to reclassify broadband transport as a telecom service and instead to keep it as an information service, as part of enacting the net neutrality rules he seeks, according to a high-ranking commission official who has been briefed about the recent stakeholder meetings on net neutrality and to other officials who have been represented at those gatherings or also been briefed. Genachowski appears to prefer to stick with the current Title I information service regime for broadband, especially if he can get ISP support for net neutrality rules that don’t include reclassification, commission, industry and nonprofit officials said.
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The chairman’s staff wants to roll out rules on net neutrality for the meeting that’s been officially rescheduled for Dec. 21 (CD Nov 24 p1), said the same officials. They said the chairman, his aides and career commission staffers may not have settled on a clear path through net neutrality or reclassification. But it’s becoming increasingly clear that Genachowski would like support from ISPs opposed to net neutrality rules and from other companies and nonprofit groups that back them for such mandates without reclassification, commission, industry and public-interest officials said.
FCC Chief of Staff Eddie Lazarus has told some net neutrality rule foes that if they don’t agree not to oppose such requirements under the current Title I broadband regime of the Communications Act, the commission may proceed under Title II. That’s according to a high-ranking agency official not at the meeting and some public-interest officials represented at the gatherings. Regardless of how Genachowski proceeds, the meetings seem to be a way for him to gauge support from ISPs and other industry and nonprofit entities for net neutrality rules that could be voted on as soon as Dec. 21, said commission, industry and public interest officials.
Genachowski delayed next month’s meeting by six days to “help us evaluate potential agenda items for December,” said FCC Press Secretary Jen Howard. She declined further comment.
"The message we're getting is that reclassification is not on the table,” said a public interest representative. “Title II is off the table, as far as [Genachowski] is concerned.” But “he may have to reexamine the issue” if Democratic Commissioners Michael Copps and Mignon Clyburn “hold out” and don’t agree to support net neutrality without reclassification, the nonprofit staffer added.
Supporters of net neutrality asked the FCC to “consider a middle ground approach” under which it “would invoke authority under both Title I and Title II, but suspend implementation of the latter for a period of time, perhaps one year,” they said. A Media Access Project ex parte filing posted Wednesday in docket 09-191 reported on a Monday net neutrality stakeholder meeting attended by that group and several other nonprofits and companies including EchoStar and Skype that support such rules (CD Nov 24 p6) OR (WID Nov 24 p3). Dish Network, represented at Monday’s stakeholder meeting, spoke to Genachowski and aides to Clyburn and Copps, offering its modifications to the net neutrality compromise by outgoing House Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said ex parte filings.
Leading the net neutrality stakeholder meetings -- some with cable and telecom interests that oppose rules and others with nonprofit groups and companies that back rules -- are three Genachowski aides, according to ex parte filings and industry and commission officials. They are Lazarus, Chief Counsel Rick Kaplan and advisor Zac Katz. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson asked Genachowski “not to adopt regulations that lack sensitivity to the dynamics of investment in a difficult economy, or to the capabilities and challenges inherent in different broadband technologies,” the telco said in a Wednesday ex parte filing. Genachowski has been seeking net neutrality rules that would cover both wireline and wireless services (CD Nov 19 p1) OR (WID Nov 19 p1). Genachowski’s staff has been feeling out industry for compromise for several weeks, said a high-ranking FCC official and an industry source. In at least one discussion with an industry official, Genachowski’s staff has said the chairman would like to draft something along the lines of Waxman’s aborted compromise bill, an industry lobbyist said. Unlike Waxman’s approach, Genachowski’s rule might treat wireless separately, and might also abandon some of the sunset provisions in Waxman’s bill, the lobbyist said. The lobbyist was briefed on a discussion between a Genachowski aide and an industry official. Verizon is an ISP that wouldn’t back such an approach, and Executive Vice President Tom Tauke told Lazarus that during Monday’s stakeholder meetings, said industry and FCC officials. The company instead has said it would support net neutrality rules that would be temporary or have an expiration date, an industry executive said.
The topic of data roaming also has come up at some recent FCC meetings not on net neutrality, and it seems that Genachowski wants to push forward on such rules soon, agency and nonprofit officials said. “Data roaming is clearly starting to move on the fast track,” said a nonprofit representative: Though he doesn’t think Genachowski will seek a vote on data roaming on Dec. 21, it seems that commission staffers could have a draft ready “if they wanted to.” With Genachowski’s staff moving ahead on net neutrality, it likely means that the agency won’t take up Universal Service Fund reform until the February meeting, a high-ranking FCC official said.