Cisco Backs E-rate Spending Increase, Compromise on Net Neutrality

also told Wheeler it’s important to find a “compromise” in the net neutrality debate “that will be good for all parts of industry as well as for consumers,” said the company. A regulatory structure “designed for monopoly telephone services is not appropriate for the vibrant Internet of today" and the FCC "should formulate balanced rules to protect the open Internet,” Cisco said. In a separate meeting Tuesday, Jeffrey Campbell, Cisco vice president-government affairs, told an aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel there’s still a “risk for insufficiently funding internal connections to the classroom because funds are only made available for internal connections after all requests for connections to the buildings are funded,” said an ex parte filing. Raising the E-rate cap would alleviate the problem in the short term, but “it is not clear that it will be solved for the future,” Cisco said. One possibility is to cap new funds for fiber construction, to ensure funding for internal connections, Cisco said. The commission is scheduled to take up Wheeler’s proposed $1.5 billion E-rate spending cap increase at its Dec. 11 meeting.