USTelecom Filing Highlights Broadband Investment and Innovation Success Under Current Policy Framework
Release Date: 2010-01-15

Investment, Competition, Usage, Employment and Innovation Thriving Across Broadband Services, Content and Applications

WASHINGTON, D.C.—USTelecom has joined scores of other broadband stakeholders in filing comments in the Federal Communications Commission’s rulemaking to safeguard an open Internet. The 50+ page filing lays out a wealth of economic and market data highlighting the value that today’s broadband networks are delivering to consumers under the current regulatory framework. The filing also describes some of the changes occurring on today’s dynamic broadband networks and cautions against imposing new rules on how those networks operate and innovate to meet the consumer demands of today and needs of tomorrow.

“What the Commission does in this proceeding will have a dramatic impact on the future evolution of the Internet. It is essential that the Commission do no harm to this unparalleled source of innovation, job creation, and economic growth.” said USTelecom President and CEO Walter B. McCormick, Jr.

“USTelecom and its member companies strongly agree with the FCC on the merits of an open Internet,” added McCormick. “We simply disagree with those who suggest that there is a need for new rules and expanded government regulation. Today consumers enjoy a free and open internet, competitive offerings, and abundant choice. Broadband service providers are investing, creating new jobs, and growing our economy. The Internet is an American success story. The Commission needs to be very, very careful in tinkering with this dynamic and robust sector of the marketplace.

As the FCC moves forward in this proceeding, USTelecom’s filing urges the Commission to embrace five key concepts in evaluating any new rules that it considers:

• Balance: The filing strongly cautions about tipping the balance among Internet companies by singling out one set of companies for regulation while leaving others unregulated. A level playing field is essential to preserving the dynamism that has brought us Internet innovation.
• Flexibility: Rather than issuing blanket prohibitions, the filing urges that if the FCC adopts any new rules, they be built on flexible standards focused on preserving consumer choice and competition, not particular business models. The fact is that constant change in broadband networks, applications and services are likely to outpace any rules. The filing cites the Amazon Kindle, which allows consumers to download books and other content without a monthly Internet subscription as the kind of pro-consumer innovation that overly broad rules could unnecessarily jeopardize.
• Transparency: USTelecom endorses consumer-focused disclosures concerning broadband networks and calls on industry, public interest groups and other interested stakeholders to join together to develop workable best practices.
• Managed Services: USTelecom supports a broad exception for managed services, which can provide substantial consumer benefits, including greater competition and increased broadband deployment and adoption.
• Flexible Network Management: USTelecom agrees with the FCC that network operators must have the flexibility to deal with challenges like traffic congestion, quality of service and spam. But rather than create a list of acceptable network management practices, rules should be broadly flexible and structured to protect consumers.

Echoing concerns of the Department of Justice, USTelecom cautions that an imbalanced approach could harm an investment climate that has seen broadband providers’ capital expenditures, by some accounts, exceed half a trillion dollars this past decade. The filing also notes that the U.S. is a world leader in broadband investment and consumer Internet usage. Further, the filing points out that our nation also stands out in having multiple, widely-available competitive broadband infrastructures: “Competition among network platforms creates strong incentives to fill networks with content and applications that consumers want and provides a competitive check against network providers limiting consumer access to particular content and applications.”

“We need to fully recognize the concrete economic and social benefits that we as a country are reaping from broadband investment and innovation,” McCormick said. “The extraordinary innovation and economic opportunities that a continually evolving and improving Internet is delivering into our lives means we must think carefully before changing the regulatory status quo under which we have achieved this level of broadband success.”

Read USTelecom’s filing here.