NOTE DATE FCC Moves Closer to Regulating the Internet

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: dewayne () warpspeed com (Dewayne Hendricks)
Date: September 10, 2008 7:13:39 AM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <xyzzy () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] FCC Moves Closer to Regulating the Internet

FCC Moves Closer to Regulating the Internet
<http://www.techlawjournal.com/internet/80908.htm>

(September 8, 1998)  The Federal Communications Commission released a  
lengthy report on Thursday, September 4, which suggests that the FCC  
ought to regulate Internet access provided by cable operators such as  
@Home, Road Runner, Cablevision, and MediaOne.  This is the second  
major policy statement by the FCC this year that seeks to expand its  
regulatory reach from telecommunications services into computer and  
Internet services.

The Congress, courts, and until recently, the FCC, have held to a  
distinction between "telecommunication services" and "information  
services" (also referred to as "basic" and "enhanced," respectively).   
The former are subject to FCC regulation -- the latter are not.  The  
FCC maintains in this Report that it still adheres to this dichotomy.   
However, it seeks to redefine certain information services as  
telecommunications services.

The Report argues too that with technological convergence "it will  
become increasingly difficult to maintain that particular facilities  
are 'cable' as opposed to 'telecommunications'."  And because of this,  
existing "regulatory categories," claims the Report, "must necessarily  
collapse of their own weight in the digital communications world of  
tomorrow."

The paper released last week is entitled "Internet Over Cable:  
Defining the Future in Terms of the Past: FCC Staff Working Paper on  
Regulatory Categories and the Internet."  It was written by Barbara  
Esbin, Associate Bureau Chief of the Cable Services Bureau, in  
conjunction with FCC's Office of Plans and Policy (OPP).

[snip]

"Internet Over Cable" is 129 pages long.  It can be viewed at the FCC  
website in PDF format: <http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/OPP/working_papers/oppwp30.pdf 
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