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Creative Voices' Statement on Today's FCC Order Restricting DSL Access to Competitors

Statement of Jonathan Rintels, Executive Director, Center for Creative Voices in Media, on today's FCC decision that telephone companies no longer must share access to their broadband DSL lines with competing Internet Service Providers.

Today's FCC decision that telephone companies no longer must share access to their broadband DSL lines with competing Internet Service Providers is not good for creative artists and the American public, but it could have been far, far worse. Following the Supreme Court's decision in the Brand X case upholding the FCC's earlier elimination of competition from cable broadband service, as Commissioner Copps correctly notes in his Concurring Statement, "the handwriting is on the wall."?

There was no doubt that the Commission would extend the same ill-considered regulatory treatment to the telephone companies' competing DSL broadband service. Now, thanks to the Commission, cable and telephone companies will both have the power to stop other Internet Service Providers (ISPs) from offering competing service on their broadband networks. According to the FCC's July 2005 report on High Speed Internet Access, in December 2004 approximately 94 percent of Americans subscribing to high speed Internet access received it from either a cable or a telephone company. Given that tremendous market share, today's FCC action eliminating competing ISPs will give cable and telephone companies even greater opportunities to provide the poor quality service at an inflated price for which they are so well known. To compensate for eliminating ISP competition on these companies' broadband lines, the Commission should immediately fast-track additional ways for Americans to receive high speed Internet access other than via cable and telco, including freeing up additional spectrum for new wireless broadband competition.

However, today's FCC action also gives reasons for cautious optimism. In conjunction with today's decision, the Commission unanimously adopted an important policy statement on the principles that will guide its future policymaking concerning high speed Internet access. These four principles of "Net Neutrality"? are critical for preserving the open Internet that Americans enjoy today, in contrast to a possible closed or proprietary Internet that might resemble either a cable television system "on steroids"? or the "walled garden" that was the old, pre-Internet America Online. The principles are:

1. Consumers are entitled to access the lawful Internet content of their choice;

2. Consumers are entitled to run applications and services of their choice, subject to the needs of law enforcement;

3. Consumers are entitled to connect their choice of legal devices that do not harm the network;

4. Consumers are entitled to competition among network providers, application and service providers, and content providers.

Creative Voices has strenuously advocated these "Net Neutrality"? principles for the benefit of creative artists seeking to reach an audience, as well as an audience seeking to reach creative artists. On a larger scale, as demonstrated by the inclusion of these principles in the Bill of Media Rights, a document endorsed by organizations representing over 20 million Americans, "Net Neutrality"? serves the broad public interest in the widest possible dissemination of news, information, and entertainment from a multitude of diverse voices and viewpoints, free from control by the cable and telephone companies providing the high speed Internet access that is increasingly necessary in our society.

We look forward to working with the Commission to ensure that these Net Neutrality principles are not given mere lip service, but are rigorously implemented and enforced in a manner that serves the interests of all Americans. Today's open Internet must be kept safe from a hostile takeover by the few corporate gatekeepers who now control high speed access to it, following today's Commission ruling.

Additional information and background on our concerns about the effects of the Brand X case may be found in our article in the current Journal of the Caucus for Television Producers, Writers & Directors, which is posted on our website, link below.

If you have any questions or comments on the above, please don't hesitate to contact me.

Jonathan Rintels

Center for Creative Voices in Media

www.creativevoices.us

www.creativevoices.typepad.com (blog)

Center for Creative Voices in Media

1220 L Street, N.W., Suite 100-494

Washington, DC 20005

(202) 448-1517 (voice)

(202) 318-9183 (fax)

jonr@creativevoices.us