FCC Closes Comments on ‘Open Internet Protections’ Rulemaking

The reply comments covered in this article can be found here.

Statements from OTI Senior Policy Counsel Raza Panjwani and Wireless Future Project Director Michael Calabrese are quoted in a StateScoop article on reply comments OTI filed with the Federal Communications Commission in the matter of “Safeguarding and Securing the Open Internet,” with both Panjwani and Calabrese recommending that the FCC move forward with reinstating its authority to regulate broadband internet access service.

The Open Technology Institute, the technology program run by the Washington think tank New America Foundation, on Wednesday published comments in support of the Federal Communications Commission’s recent move to reestablish its authority over the internet as defined in the 2015 Open Internet Order.

After a notice of proposed rulemaking the FCC adopted last October that would reestablish the commission’s governance authority and reclassify broadband internet as a telecommunications service, rather than merely an “information service,” the institute filed comments in support of the proposed changes, citing its mission “to ensure every community has equitable access to digital technology and its benefits.” The institute urged on FCC policies that would prevent private companies from engaging in “discriminatory practices” such as blocking, throttling or engaging in paid or affiliated prioritization for any particular content on the internet.

Raza Panjwani, a senior policy counsel at the institute, said he supports “strong rules” that would reestablish the FCC as a protector of net neutrality and that he supports reclassifying the internet as a telecommunications service under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934.

“Internet Service Providers have spent more than twenty years resisting the basic and uncontroversial proposition that they shouldn’t be able to meddle with Americans’ internet connections,” Panjwani said in a statement. “Today, broadband internet access is too fundamental and too important not to apply strong oversight and protections.”

The institute said it’s calling for FCC rules that would only preempt state and local laws that provide lower levels of consumer protection.

In its comments, the institute also cites the central role the internet has come to play in supporting public safety services, including social media channels used by government agencies to coordinate responses to natural disasters and provide quick public access to breaking news.

“Government agencies, first responders, emergency services, and public health officials use the web to monitor ongoing community issues and crises, disseminate information to the public via websites and social media channels, and coordinate emergency and disaster responses,” the institute’s comments read. “As such, OTI supports the Commission’s proposal to reclassify [broadband internet access service] as a Title II telecommunications service and reinstate conduct standards and rules originally established in the 2015 Open Internet Order.”

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The Open Technology Institute’s Michael Calabrese argued that the FCC should push forward reclassification and that the agency should wield the same type of authority granted by pro-consumer laws in California and the European Union.

“The FCC should adopt a bright-line rule that prohibits discriminatory or anti-competitive forms of zero-rating,” he said, referencing the practice of exempting certain content from counting toward data caps. “The agency should also update its definition of data services that are exempt from the open internet rules to ensure mobile carriers are subject to the same rules as every other provider. Reinstating and updating the FCC’s authority will protect consumers and ensure that the public interest—not profit motives—remain paramount to broadband internet service providers.”