Robert McDowell, a former Republican FCC commissioner, plans...
Robert McDowell, a former Republican FCC commissioner, plans to tell Congress Friday why FCC net neutrality rules are not necessary. “Nothing is broken that needs fixing,” McDowell says of the Internet access market in his written testimony for a hearing…
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the House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee is holding at 9 a.m. in 2141 Rayburn. McDowell, now a visiting fellow at the Hudson Institute, voted against net neutrality rules while at the agency. The agency is currently engaged in a rulemaking with the goal of creating new rules. “In sum, the term ‘net neutrality’ seems to morph almost daily, but ultimately all of the arguments for it translate into ‘please regulate my rival ... but not me!’ in order for the politically-favored to gain a competitive advantage through regulatory arbitrage,” McDowell plans to say, warning of a potential “regulatory Leviathan” that would emerge from the regulation. McDowell’s testimony points to U.S. antitrust laws as protecting consumers and given those laws apply to the Internet, they avoid the question the FCC faces over how to classify broadband. Many net neutrality proponents have requested the agency reclassify broadband as a Telecom Act Title II telecom service, believing stronger rules would be possible in that case. McDowell plans to also point to Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act as a relevant piece of law reducing the need for FCC rules. His remarks slam Title II of the Communications Act as “particularly powerful, prescriptive and far-reaching” and warn that net neutrality rules would spur other countries to regulate the Internet in troubling ways. Other witnesses for the hearing include FTC Commissioner Joshua Wright and Columbia Law School professor Tim Wu, a scholar on net neutrality issues who reputedly coined the phrase. The Telecommunications Industry Association sent subcommittee leaders a letter ahead of the hearing warning against Title II reclassification. “The question of whether or not to impose utility-style regulation on Internet Service Providers has previously been thoroughly considered -- and rejected by the FCC,” TIA President Grant Seiffert said (http://bit.ly/TbnCCj). “The Internet has flourished due to the U.S.’s long standing light touch regulatory approach."