FCC Choses To Classify Broadband Internet Access Service As A Title II telecommunications service In The Light Of Comcast v. FCC

Regulating Broadband http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
After the U.S. Circuit Court's ruling in Comcast v. FCC — which all of us thought would be a major setback for the FCC, seem to go in a direction Good or Bad depending on which camp you are on. FCC has opted for reclassifying the transmission component of broadband Internet access service as a Title II telecommunications service.
Customers generally stand to gain as it takes away capability of service providers like Comcast deciding which content will flow through their pipes. Content providers like YouTube, video service will be rest assured that the content will reach the intended audience. There are subtle annoyances on either selection but I feel the need to side with Chairman Genachowski's proposed legal approach to broadband regulation.
The FCC Chairman has reiterated the need for going forward with the Broadband Policy Agenda;

· Extending broadband communications to all Americans, in rural and urban America and in between, by transforming the $9 billion Universal Service Fund from supporting legacy telephone service to supporting broadband communications service;
· Protecting consumers and promoting healthy competition by, for example, providing greater transparency regarding the speeds, services, and prices consumers receive, and ensuring that
consumers—individuals as well as small businesses—are treated honestly and fairly;
· Empowering consumers to take control of their personal information so that they can use broadband communications without unknowingly sacrificing their privacy;
· Lowering the costs of investment—for example, through smart policies relating to rights-of way—in order to accelerate and extend broadband deployment;
· Advancing the critical goals of protecting Americans against cyber-attacks, extending 911 coverage to broadband communications, and otherwise protecting the public’s safety; and
· Working to preserve the freedom and openness of the Internet through high-level rules of the road to safeguard consumers’ right to connect with whomever they want; speak freely online; access the lawful products and services of their choice; and safeguard the Internet’s boundless promise as a platform for innovation and communication to improve our education and health care, and help deliver a clean energy future.

If you read the paper you will also hear that after the  Comcast v. FCC it is difficult to maintain and protect consumers in an "anciliary" role that FCC have been taking.

The Commission’s General Counsel and many other lawyers believe that the Comcast decision reduces sharply the Commission’s ability to protect consumers and promote competition using its “ancillary” authority, and creates serious uncertainty about the Commission’s ability, under this approach, to perform the basic oversight functions, and pursue the basic broadband-related policies, that have been long and widely thought essential and appropriate.

Please read the paper in it's entirerity before making any conclusions as at first glance it might not be very clear the reasons for this decision. The FCC will issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeking public comment on this approach. So be ready.
Chairman Genachowski's Paper "THE THIRD WAY: A NARROWLY TAILORED BROADBAND FRAMEWORK" (PDF)

An American Tale, The Internet in America

Youtube and Google is synonymous with Internet and they are putting those resources and capabilities to use, to tell us all about the Internet, truly an American tale.
Even though The Internet was invented in America, few other nations like South Korea is taking the credit for most covered nations. We still have millions of users without access to a great resource that we take for granted. We start the day with the Internet and end the day with the Internet after planing tomorrow on the Internet.
But then why is this disparity? I think it is the carriers looking for locking in the profit and locking out Americans from accessing the Internet in a positive cost effective manner.
So US Government and the FCC, the Federal Communications Commission have brought up the National Broadband Plan that is being launched next Tuesday. It will layout a plan to bring all Americans on board the Internet in a fast and affordable manner.
So Google and Youtube, with the aid of the CitizenTube has launched a project to interview the chairman of FCC, Julius Genachowski for the occasion.
Starting from today, you can submit your video or text question via Google Moderator, and vote on your favorites. The interview will cover seven topics and submit your question on CitizenTube under one of the topic headings.

• Access and Affordability
• Mobile and Wireless
• Security and Privacy
• Digital Economy
• Internet in Schools
• Open Internet/Network Neutrality
• Others (learn more at Broadband.gov)

YouTube Blog
Official Google Blog: The Internet in America: A YouTube Interview with the FCC

FCC To Protect Access To An Open Internet And Keep Network Neutrality Alive.

Vint Cerf has published a post about FCC explicitly keeping the "Network Neutrality" from ISPs and Broadband providers from tuning it to their benefit.
Even though this should be given, many network service providers like to keep it to themselves. With VoIP services being available from many a providers, Services like Google Voice being banned, file transfers blocked or degraded by Comcast are things visible to the surface of these humongous icebergs.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski gave a speech at the Brookings Institution and I like what I heard;

I’d like to thank Brookings for hosting me and this discussion about the future of broadband and the Internet.
We’ve just finished a summer of big-ticket commemorations, celebrating the 40th anniversaries of the Apollo landing and of Woodstock; 1969 was also a good year to be a kid in New York, with Joe Namath calling the Super Bowl, and the Knicks’ season that ended with the legendary Willis Reed in Game 7. I grew up a long fly ball from Shea Stadium and soaked up every minute of the Miracle Mets’ season. Maybe that’s why I tend to believe in miracles.
But perhaps the most momentous birthday from that famous summer of 1969 went by just a couple of weeks ago with little mention. Just over forty years ago, a handful of engineers in a UCLA lab connected two computers with a 15-foot gray cable and transferred little pieces of data back and forth. It was the first successful test of the ARPANET, the U.S.-government-funded project that became the Internet -- the most transformational communications breakthrough since the printing press.
Today, we can’t imagine what our lives would be like without the Internet -- any more than we can imagine life without running water or the light bulb. Millions of us depend upon it every day: at home, at work, in school -- and everywhere in between. The Internet has unleashed the creative genius of countless entrepreneurs and has enabled the creation of jobs -- and the launch of small businesses and the expansion of large ones -- all across America.
That’s why Congress and the President have charged the FCC with developing a National Broadband Plan to ensure that every American has access to open and robust broadband.

Also read the write up by Vint Cerf (there is a personal bias here as I like Vint) and do not miss the comments. You might get surprised!
Google Public Policy Blog: FCC announces plan to protect access to an open Internet

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