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reclassification

FCC seeks comment on broadband reclassification

The Federal Communications Commission has taken the first step toward figuring out how it's going to regulate broadband after losing an important legal battle earlier this year.

At an open meeting Thursday, the FCC voted to open a proceeding that seeks comment on three options for redefining the FCC's role in regulating broadband. The FCC is asking for comments on these new proposals, which it hopes will put it on firmer legal footing, after a federal appeals court ruled in April that the agency did not have authority to sanction Comcast for violating Net neutrality principles. Comcast had … Read more

The FCC's disingenuous 'third way' on broadband

Editors' note: This is a guest column. See Lawrence Spiwak's bio below.

Despite his protestations to the contrary, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski is about to reverse a 25-year bipartisan tradition of removing heavy-handed public-utility-type regulations over new technologies and services.

Although Genachowski maintains that such regulatory interventions will be "modest," Genachowski's proposed approach is entirely disingenuous. Instead, for those of us who study this industry closely, it is readily apparent that the FCC now wants to regulate almost all aspects of the Internet.

In the past, the FCC, under both Democrats and Republicans, recognized … Read more