The FCC makes a naked lunge to collect political power unto itself.
U.S. companies are sitting on $2 trillion in cash, and the Obama Administration has just made telecommunications a less attractive place to invest. To health care and financial services, add one more industry that the federal government has drawn into that huge gray cloud called "economic uncertainty."
Yesterday's action is breathtaking: At a stroke, the Democratic-controlled Federal Communications Commission circumvents
Congress, defies the courts and declares itself overlord of the Web.
Under the "net neutrality" rules adopted by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and two fellow Democrats on the five-member panel, Verizon, AT&T, Comcast and other Internet service providers will have less say over how they manage their networks and serve customers going forward.
The rules prohibit Internet providers from blocking legal websites, a principle the industry already voluntarily adheres to. More problematic are rules that would allow the FCC to determine if an Internet service provider is engaged in "unreasonable" discrimination in terms of prioritizing traffic on its network.
Republican Commissioner Robert McDowell, who voted against the new regulations, noted in a statement yesterday that "reasonable" is not only a subjective term but "perhaps the most litigated word in American history."
Earlier this year, a federal court ruled that the agency lacked legal authority from Congress to regulate Internet service providers. More than 300 Members of Congress from both parties have urged the FCC to stand down on net neutrality regulations.
That number surely will rise next year.
There is no compelling reason to subject the Internet to more regulation. New devices and applications proliferate. Competition among broadband providers is robust, barriers to market entry low, and evidence of market failure nonexistent.
What the FCC has done here is a naked lunge for political power. It forces every player in this crucially important industry to first clear what they can and can't do with their Washington masters.
Minimizing the inevitable damage ought to be a top priority of the next Congress.
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