Newsroom: Internet

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(WASHINGTON, DC) — Consumer groups are calling on the Federal Communications Commission to retain the nondiscriminatory nature of the Internet in order for America to regain leadership in broadband communications in recent comments filed with the Agency.

When Congress passed the Telecommunication Act of 1996, public Internet traffic on telecommunications networks were obligated to provide nondiscriminatory interconnection and carriage under Title II of the Communications Act, according to the comments filed by Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, the Media Access Project and U.S.PIRG.

Unfortunately, the FCC has been moving away from the principles of nondiscrimination and open access, clearing the way for phone and cable companies to dominate America’s Internet marketplace. This "cozy duopoly" allows these companies to limit services offered and keep prices high. If the agency allows companies to continue to close systems, and implement discriminatory practices, the vibrant Internet that Congress sought to preserve in the 1996 Act could disappear.

The comments note that Americans pay 10 to 20 times as much as other developed nations for far less broadband service and face restrictions that hinder the ability to fully utilize the immense functionality of broadband technologies.

The result of the lack of competition is a broadband market that fails to deliver any broadband services to substantial numbers of American households (around 9%, according to the GAO), fails to deliver bandwidth with data transfer rates comparable to the networks in other industrialized nations, and fails to deliver facilities that afford two-way communications at full broadband functionality and at reasonable prices.

The comments detail current business practices that are discriminatory, anti-competitive, and anti-consumer. For example:

Customer agreements that place severe restrictions on customer usage, and assert a level of control over their customers’ online service, including the right to monitor all traffic and block or remove any traffic for a wide range of reasons.

Terms and conditions intended to lock consumers in with long contracts, severe early termination fees, and penalties for switching services.

According to the comments, the only way to break out of this quagmire is to fully return to the successful policies of open communications that helped develop the Internet and allowed the U.S. to be the world leader in the first generation of the digital age.

For a complete copy of the comments click here.

Contact: Jennifer Fuson, (202) 462-6262, fusoje@consumer.org

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