FCC deregulates DSL
Unanimous FCC Votes To Deregulate Telecom Broadband
Technology Daily PM Edition, August 5, 2005.
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After the recent “Brand X” Supreme Court decision
(Supreme Court Rules for Industry, Against Internet Freedom), the FCC has decided to de-regulate
the telephone companies that provide high-speed Internet access through Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) technology. The FCC ruling will treat cable companies and telephone companies in the same way, allowing them to exclude competing service providers from their networks. Critics of the decision worry that this will drive small
Internet service providers (ISPs) out of business, reduce competition, raise prices for consumer broad-band access, and create a situation in which a few companies will control Internet access for most people.
The two Democratic commissioners, Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps, tried to get a “network neutrality” provision into the regulation. Such a provision “would bar DSL providers from degrading or blocking services offered by competitors. Under the compromise, the FCC has adopted a set of principles on neutrality, but they are not enforceable, agency officials said.”
More coverage here:
- FCC eases regulation of DSL lines
by Paul Kapustka. - FCC Prepares to Drop DSL Hammer Broadband reports
…while the bells get deregulated, VoIP gets leashed: “So, if anyone spins the day as a triumph for deregulation and the free market, look a little closer. The Internet is getting regulated for the first time, while telecom is deregulated. Regulate the overly competitive application market? Deregulate the barely competitive access market? Something is backwards.”