WASHINGTON — President Obama on Monday put the full weight of his administration behind an open and free Internet, calling for a strict policy of so-called net neutrality
and formally opposing deals in which content providers like Netflix
would pay huge sums to broadband companies for faster access to their
customers.
The
president’s proposal is consistent with his longstanding support for
rules that seek to prevent cable and telephone companies from providing
special access to some content providers. But the statement posted online
Monday, as Mr. Obama traveled to Asia, is the most direct effort by the
president to influence the debate about the Internet’s future.
In
the statement, and a video on the White House website, Mr. Obama urged
the Federal Communications Commission to adopt the strictest set of
neutrality rules possible and to treat consumer broadband service as a
public utility, similar to telephone or power companies.
“We
cannot allow Internet service providers to restrict the best access or
to pick winners and losers in the online marketplace for services and
ideas,” Mr. Obama wrote in the statement.
The
F.C.C. is an independent agency not subject to Mr. Obama’s direct
authority. But the president is adding his voice to the 3.7 million
people who submitted comments to the agency, most on behalf of a free
and open Internet in which broadband companies could not pick which
content would arrive quickly and which would be slowed down.
Mr.
Obama said that new rules under consideration by the F.C.C. should
adhere to several key principles: No website or service should be
blocked by an Internet service provider; no content should be
purposefully slowed down or sped up; there should be more transparency
about where traffic is routed; and no paid deals should be made to
provide a speed advantage to some providers over others in delivering
content.
That
last principle would directly affect some of the megadeals already
being made by companies like Netflix, whose video streaming service has
been gobbling up bandwidth and slowing down the Internet as millions of
people attempt to watch movies and television shows on their computers
and tablets.
Earlier
this year, Netflix struck a deal with Comcast under which it pays
Comcast for a direct connection into its broadband network so
subscribers experience less delay in viewing Netflix’s streaming video.
Mr. Obama said he opposed such deals and urged the commission to adopt rules that would prevent them.
“Simply
put: No service should be stuck in a ‘slow lane' because it does not
pay a fee,” Mr. Obama wrote. “That kind of gatekeeping would undermine
the level playing field essential to the Internet’s growth. So, as I
have before, I am asking for an explicit ban on paid prioritization and
any other restriction that has a similar effect.”
Tom
Wheeler, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, on Monday
said he welcomed the president’s input and said he agreed that the
Internet should remain free and open. But he did not say whether he
would fully support reclassifying broadband as a utility. He did say,
however, that the F.C.C. would need more time to formulate its rules,
meaning that a proposal was unlikely to come by the end of the year.
Mr.
Wheeler had most recently been leaning toward a hybrid approach to net
neutrality, one that would keep a light touch on the consumer end of
Internet service but that would apply the more strict Title II oversight
to the relationship between an Internet service provider and content
companies.
“Whether
in the context of a hybrid or reclassification approach,” he said,
“Title II brings with it policy issues that run the gamut from privacy
to universal service to the ability of federal agencies to protect
consumers, as well as legal issues ranging from the ability of Title II
to cover mobile services to the concept of applying forbearance on
services under Title II.”
“We
found we would need more time to examine these to ensure that whatever
approach is taken, it can withstand any legal challenges it may face,”
he said.
Reaction
from some of the biggest broadband companies was swift and negative.
Shares of some of the big broadband providers, including Comcast and
Time Warner Cable, were down about 3 percent on Monday morning.
Verizon,
which brought the court challenge that struck down the F.C.C.'s 2010
rules on net neutrality, called Mr. Obama’s proposal “a radical reversal
of course that would in and of itself threaten great harm to the
Internet.”
Both
Verizon, which provides both wired and wireless broadband services, and
CTIA-The Wireless Association, the leading mobile phone association,
also decried Mr. Obama’s call to apply net neutrality rules to wireless
broadband.
“Imposing
antiquated common carrier regulation, or Title II, on the vibrant
mobile wireless ecosystem would be a gross overreaction,” said Meredith
Attwell Baker, president and chief executive of the trade association
and a former Republican commissioner for the F.C.C.
Such
action “would impose inappropriate regulation on a dynamic industry and
would threaten mobile providers’ ability to invest and innovate, all to
the detriment of consumers,” she said.
Consumers
groups hailed the president’s statement. Gene Kimmelman, president of
Public Knowledge, said: “Today the Obama administration expanded its
leadership to promote an open Internet by supporting the strongest tools
to prevent blocking or throttling of Internet traffic, and by also
supporting the strongest tools to deter fast lanes and prioritized
traffic on the public’s most essential communications platform of the
21st century.”
Video
How Net Neutrality Works
The future of protecting an open Internet
has been the subject of fierce debate, and potential changes to the
rules by the Federal Communications Commission could impact your online
experience.
Video by Natalia V. Osipova and Carrie Halperin on
Publish Date May 15, 2014.
Read More >>
