Congress Must Act Now To Protect Internet Freedom And Innovation

Statement

An important task facing Congress as we assemble our "to do" list for July is addressing the question of "network neutrality."

For good reasons, net neutrality has become a major focus in the debate on the legislation to grant national video licenses to telecommunications companies. Network neutrality refers to the principle underlying the development of the Internet, essentially ensuring that all data traveling across the network is treated in a nondiscriminatory manner.

For businesses, civic organizations, or an alumni association that means selling a product, announcing an initiative or organizing an event is as easy as setting up a website that is accessible to anyone with an Internet connection. For the consumer it means easy access to an ever expanding array of services, products and information of their choosing.

Network neutrality serves as the Internet's nondiscrimination policy, and is similar to policies that ensure large phone companies like Verizon and BellSouth have to connect calls from Sprint or T-Mobile with the same speed and accuracy that they would for their own calls. Since its inception, the rules of equal access to the Internet have allowed this powerful medium to flourish as an engine for economic growth and political activism.

Unfortunately, last summer the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to relax the protections that ensure nondiscrimination in web access and essentially gut net neutrality protocols. Shortly after the FCC ruling, AT&T and other phone companies announced their intentions to impose a tiered program of paid access to the Internet. This means the phone and cable companies will decide the speed at which different bits of data can move across the network, in essence creating "fast lanes" and "slow lanes" for the Internet. This would segregate Internet traffic based on who can pay by forcing companies and individuals to pay a premium for their websites to be in the "fast lane" while relegating those without deep pockets to the "slow lanes."

This fundamental change to the Internet would be bad for several reasons. First, it means that small players on the Internet will find it harder - and more expensive - to use the worldwide reach of the Internet to bring their new ideas to market. Unlike the ads you've probably seen in The Hill and other publications, objecting to the phone company plans isn't about protecting Google or other big Internet players. It's about ensuring the next Google can emerge to compete with Google. And that will be a lot harder to do if the next Google has to pay exorbitant fees to phone and cable companies to get on the Internet's "fast lane."

Second, there is the distinct possibility that the phone and cable companies would block or slow the sites and services of their competitors. Unfortunately, we don't see in the phone and cable industries the kind of wide open competition that is present today on the Internet. Ultimately, I question the commitment of those companies to protect a system that allows open competition and fosters innovation as the Internet does today.

Third, the potential drawbacks to ending net neutrality extend far beyond the impact to economic competition. The Internet has become an unprecedented forum for exchanging ideas and news, promoting debate, and encouraging political involvement. It's the new boisterous, chaotic "town square," and one with a geographic and instantaneous reach about which our Forefathers could only dream. But it could easily be lost without net neutrality, as phone and cable companies would have unprecedented power to control our ability to decide what we read, buy, and discuss on the web.

One of the most frequent arguments made against establishing net neutrality rules is that it is a solution in search of a problem, that there are no tiered access charges today. But the phone companies have made clear their desire to use their critical position in the network to impose new fees and barriers to entry on the Internet. Do we really want to wait until the vibrancy of the Internet has been muzzled and then hope that future Congresses will muster the courage to restore non-discrimination to the Internet? I, for one, am not willing to take that chance.

Congress needs to address this issue before, not after, the phone and cable companies fundamentally change the nature of the Internet. We have all seen the dynamic change that it has brought to our country and, indeed, the world. Congress shouldn't just sit by and watch network neutrality and the vibrancy of the Internet slip away.

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