Broadband Providers Prefer Market-Based Answer to Transparency Gap

Qwest cautioned the FCC not to overreach with disclosure rules: “Any regulation by the Commission in this area … must be guided by First Amendment principles that protect the speech that providers choose to make against unwarranted government intervention.” If a rule overcomes that constitutional hurdle, it should be “broad and principled- based, rather than detailed,” providing flexibility on “what information is conveyed and how it is conveyed,” Qwest said. Service providers should only make available “as much [information] as those providers deem appropriate given their market position,” it said.

The Independent Telephone & Telecommunications Alliance rejected truth-in-billing regulations for broadband: “Absent existing, significant problems -- as could be demonstrated by valid consumer complaints and specific evidence of communications providers’ practices -- the Commission should refrain from micromanaging carrier practices: the marketplace will best determine the course carriers take to ensure that subscribers … obtain complete and accurate information regarding provider offerings.”

Cable companies “provide a great deal of information about their broadband services to consumers at every stage of the purchasing process,” said NCTA. The FCC shouldn’t impose new rules without evidence that cable isn’t providing adequate information and disclosure, it said: “With respect to information regarding the ‘actual’ speed of broadband services, we continue to encourage the Commission to consult with Internet engineering experts to develop measures that would be meaningful to consumers and not unduly burdensome to providers, rather than adopting new rules based on potentially flawed data or unwarranted assumptions.”

But the New America Foundation said “voluntary guidelines are insufficient as a substitute for codified regulations, as service providers routinely fail to disclose meaningful information to consumers.” It backed “substantial changes” to existing FCC rules “to remedy these problems and empower consumers with the information they need to make an informed choice of their Internet service provider and offering.” More data is needed not just by consumers, but by policymakers, researchers and innovators, it added.

Google said transparency is lacking in the broadband industry. “Despite the importance of broadband …, there is a lack of reliable, up-to date, and readily-accessible information about the broadband service offerings available in the marketplace,” it said. “By their very nature, network management practices occurring within the broadband providers’ physical and logical networks may have effects on application and content performance that are difficult for a user to discern and understand.” In addition to a sixth Internet Policy principle of transparency, the FCC should take “concrete steps to foster the development and adoption of measurement tools and other technologies that ensure the accuracy of service providers’ disclosures,” it said.

The Center for Democracy & Technology said consumers should be able to see data about their Internet usage. “Wireline broadband subscribers often have no reasonable means of monitoring how much data they are sending over the network,” it said. “As a result, subscribers of services with monthly throughput caps may have no idea whether or when they are at risk of hitting the caps.” And customers “may have no idea when they are engaged in the kind of heavy usage that could make them the target of congestion management techniques that focus on ‘bandwidth hogs,'” CDT said. Also, ISP disclosure of technical information about broadband network status could help application providers and other network operators tune their apps or networks in response, CDT said.

USTelecom said industry, public interest groups and others should work together to develop “best practices” for disclosure “and to create a technology neutral and understandable measurement methodology.” Verizon and AT&T backed the approach, which USTelecom compared to the way voluntary standards-setting bodies develop technical standards, it said. “This will ensure that proposed solutions are practicable, workable, fair to all and that the benefits to consumers are real and the costs to industry are reasonable,” USTelecom said. Disclosure and measurement are “complex areas” because broadband services and customer use of services are “constantly evolving,” it said.

Intel also urged an industry answer to improving transparency. The FCC should direct industry “to develop a detailed system by date-certain,” it said. “An industry- created set of metrics, procedures, and best practices might well be able to cost-effectively harness market forces to define, collect, store, and analyze broadband performance data.”

Nielsen suggested the FCC put an independent third-party in charge of broadband measurement. With certain protections for ISPs, a system including “end-user service experience, in-network node tests and/or other third party measurements could be developed that would both alleviate the broadband service providers’ concerns and provide consumers with the comparative broadband data necessary to enable them to make informed choices,” it said.

While ISPs opposed new rules, they urged regulatory parity across the industry. AT&T said any FCC disclosure rules should govern more than just providers of fixed residential and small business broadband, and include “those that may believe they are outside the commission’s traditional jurisdiction but that provide complementary or substitutable broadband-related services.” The carrier said disclosure rules “should cover all communications providers and each phase of the customer-provider relationship, including the purchasing decision and decision to terminate service.”

ITTA said “all providers offering a broadband service should be subject to the same obligations,” if any are imposed. The FCC “must correct this glaring discrepancy by bringing mobile broadband providers into the instant inquiry,” it said.

However, Akamai said any new disclosure rules should apply only to companies that currently file FCC Form 477 broadband reports: “Internet companies like Akamai, which do not offer broadband services to end users, have never been covered by the Commission’s reporting requirements or by any assertion of Commission jurisdiction and should not be subjected to Commission data collection requirements.”

Giving consumers better information doesn’t necessarily mean providing a lot more data, Verizon said in its comments. “The challenge for broadband providers is to provide customers with sufficient information to enable informed purchase decisions without deluging them with too much information,” it said.