Groups on Both Sides Blast Wheeler's Hybrid Approach
The hybrid net neutrality approach FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is said to be considering is “highly questionable and could fundamentally threaten the open Internet,” said more than 70 organizations, including Common Cause, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Free Press and Fight…
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for the Future, in a letter to Wheeler on Friday. “This is not what the public wants or what President Obama promised the American public. Even the original authors of some of these approaches have said that full Title II reclassification is the better way forward, and ISPs like Verizon have already threatened lawsuits” (see 1411050042), the letter said. “While a sender‐side approach may seem novel, we believe the FCC is in danger of failing its duty to protect the public if it’s contemplating an experimental legal theory that's unlikely to survive litigation.” Sarah Morris, senior policy counsel for the New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute, which signed the letter, said in a news release that “basing network neutrality rules off a new, untested relationship between content senders and distant Internet service providers could have serious, far-reaching collateral effects on the Internet ecosystem beyond network neutrality. The FCC’s surest, clearest path forward for strong network neutrality protections remains, as it has been, to reclassify the last-mile retail broadband Internet service under Title II of the Telecommunications Act.” The strategy also drew fire from Title II opponents. “This proposal is unworkable," said Danielle Coffey, Telecommunications Industry Association vice president-government affairs, in a blog post Friday. "Title II in any way, shape, or form is bad for consumers, bad for industry, and bad for the U.S. economy.” An FCC spokesman declined comment.