(Washington, DC) Representative Rick Boucher (D-VA) said today that broadband companies can’t expect to move any legislative initiatives in Congress until the issue of net neutrality is resolved.
Speaking here at the Congressional Internet Caucus’ State of the Net Conference, Boucher, Co-Chair and Founder of the Caucus, said that “until we resolve the network neutrality issue, every positive measure that broadband providers bring before the Congress will be blocked.”
Cable and phone companies are aware of the need to do something on network neutrality, Boucher said. The telcos are taking their demands for video franchise reforms to state capitals and are steering clear of Congress, and broadband companies haven’t come to Congress with their list of legislative needs yet.
The legislative goals of cable and phone companies will be stymied until they reach a compromise on net neutrality given the power that net neutrality proponents have to kill any relevant legislation. “It is critically important that this be resolved. It was the unresolved quality of the network neutrality debate [that derailed the telecom reform bill during the last Congress],” Boucher said. “” think a compromise between the Internet centric companies and the broadband providers is critically important. I would hope that such a compromise can be achieved in the near term.”
Long an advocate of net neutrality legislation, Boucher said that “the very success of the American economy…has been led by the growth in the Internet,” success which might be jeopardized if broadband providers create a two-tiered Internet. If broadband providers establish multiple tiers of Internet service, it might “hobble the very innovation that has been the seed of all that success,” Boucher said.
The creation of a slow and fast lane on the Internet will stifle new businesses because the slow lane won’t be useful for too many innovative services. “The applications that are popular today are all high-rate applications…these really require fast lane access.”
But, Boucher concedes that any non-discriminatory requirements could harm investment in the network and might thwart socially beneficial applications. “We can’t advance content origination at the expense of network innovation,” he said. “We need both kinds of innovation to have the kind of Internet going forward that grows.”
Cynthia Brumfield at 10:11 AM|Comments(0)
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