I. Bibliographic Entry
Gross, Grant. “FCC to claim some broadband regulatory power” Computerworld. 5 May 2010.

II. Summary of Article The U.S. Federal Communications Commission is trying to partially reclassify all broadband as a common carrier service; they are trying to add this to the net neutrality rules in their new national broadband plan. Right now broadband is classified as a largely unregulated information service. They are trying to change this to make broadband more easily regulated under Title II of the Communications Act. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is going to make the announcement Thursday of the decision last month by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit where it was ruled that the FCC does not have the authority to try and impose net neutrality principles on Comcast Cable Company. Experts are saying that because of this ruling it is questionable whether or not the FCC will be able to enforce the new broadband plans that they have created. Genachowski is saying that the FCC does not necessarily want there to be heavy regulations under Title II but instead they wish to find a happy medium between the lax regulations now and those that would be perceived as too harsh. The chairman went on to say that the FCC was looking to assert jurisdiction over, "only the small handful of provisions that, prior to the Comcast decision, were widely believed to be within the Commission's purview," while creating, "meaningful boundaries to guard against regulatory overreach." Gigi Sohnm, president of a digital rights group known as Public Knowledge, responded stating, "We have been saying for months that the FCC should consider a Title II solution to the problem of how to best protect consumers and expand broadband access and adoption in the U.S. since the Comcast case was decided." Leslie Harris from the Center of Democracy and Technology responded by saying, "This is a crucial step in developing a telecommunications legal framework for the 21st century," she added, "The communications network that matters now is the Internet. It is rapidly becoming the central and indispensable platform for all types of communication and for all the free expression, commerce, and civic engagement that digital technologies enable." In contrast the Internet Innovation Alliance is questioning the organization and trying to figure out why the FCC is attempting to regulate broadband while at the same time encouraging the spread of broadband through its own plan. They claim that the regulations the FCC is trying to pass will not help the maximization of deployment under the new broadband plan. Randolph May of the Free State Foundation called the FCC decision a mistake stating, "I won't believe that Genachowski's going to propose regulating Internet services like legacy telephone services until I hear him say it with my own ears," he said. "The turnabout in Internet policy would be radical. It would be a mistake of historic proportions."

III. Impact The FCC needs to figure out what they are going to do with these new regulations. They say that they are not trying to put extreme restrictions on broadband but they seem to dance around the subject by not fully explaining their intent. When their neutrality rules for Comcast were turned down by the Court of Appeals it raised questions as to what it is that the FCC is trying to do here. They are trying to regulate broadband that is already in existence and then expand broadband through their own programs. It sounds like they are just trying to make money and take rights and expansion ability away from current providers. If they are allowed to go ahead with this plan the way that they want it may mean that they have too much control. I don’t think that anyone wants this to happen. It brings about a big brother idea which is inherently scary. We want the option to be able to choose between internet and internet telephone companies. If regulations become too strict then where will the competition be? Will we be able to get the bundled packages and faster speeds that come out as the various companies compete? Do stronger regulations on legacy telephone services mean that the FCC or other government agencies will be listening in on all our VOIP phone calls? No thank you.