Network World’s Jim Duffy has this piece about a UBS Warburg report that argues how a Democratic-controlled Congress will bring “government regulation to the IP networks for the first time,” thereby discouraging investment and inhibiting profitability for the telcos.
The report specifically warns that a Democratic Congress would impose net neutrality regulations on the phone companies (no apparent mention of cable operators).
“If Democrats control Congress, the ‘net neutrality’ issue will likely come to the fore, especially in the Senate,” UBS Warburg states in the report. “They would likely make a concerted effort to pass strict net neutrality legislation that prevents the Bells from fully monetizing their large investments in fiber networks.”
The report goes on to paint what seems to be a detailed dire scenario for what the Democrats might do.
It’s true that somehow net neutrality has become a partisan issue, but the report’s author clearly has a simplistic view of how Washington works. The report makes it sound like it’s a slam dunk to get a bill through Congress when in reality it’s probably a miracle that Congress passes any legislation at all, that’s how hard it is to get a bill passed. Just look at what happened to the current telecom reform legislation, which was two years in the making and was backed by tens of millions, if not a hundred million or more, in lobbying dollars.
If the Democrats try to pass net neutrality legislation, they face the same overwhelming obstacles that the Republicans faced with the current, doomed legislation.
Moreover, I think it’s somehow a fluke that net neutrality became a partisan issue — perhaps it’s because the “goo-goos,” the public interest groups and non-profit organizations, came out in favor of it first. You’d better believe the Republicans, if they’re no longer in power, will want to preserve the minority’s right to reach the public with views, videos and communications services which the powers-that-be don’t like. As for the Republican tilt toward giving big business a break, there are big businesses on both sides of the issue now.
In any event, communications policy is rarely a Democrat-versus-Republican issue, as one telco spokesperson notes in the article.
BellSouth again believes that bipartisanship will trump any one-party agenda.Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 8:53 AM | Print | Comments (0)
“I think history shows that telecommunications has never been a strictly Red-Blue partisan issue in Washington,” the spokesman says.
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