FCC December Open Commission Meeting, Washington, D.C.
Today’s meeting is being live streamed. We’re also live tweeting this morning from @FCC. Join the conversation for these open Internet rules using #oir. A statement from Chairman Genachowski and the full slate of commissioners will be posted to the FCC homepage shortly following the meeting.
10:24am ET
This is about the vibrancy of the Internet. Its freedom, its openness, its unfathomable potential. Today we affirm that hallmark. The last twenty years have demonstrated the importance of the Internet in virtually every layer of American society. Yet adequate protections currently do not exist. These rules will get the job done.
Every student who dreams an app, every curious tinkerer who devises a device, every innovator who sees an opening to push our nation forward. And every speaker who enters their discourse into the marketplace of ideas, every business owner who reaches for the next American summit. That’s who we’re protecting today. While we recognize the need for a measure of restraint in this changing landscape, and have included provisions to that end, the wonders of the Internet must not be stifled.
The majority of the focus this morning will center around the open Internet rules. Today’s commission meeting, however, will hear two items. First, a presentation from the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau on a Framework for Next Generation 911 Deployment. This will mark watershed movement for our nation’s first responders by developing a framework to provide multimedia resources beyond voice-only. Then we will tackle the final item, Preserving the Open Internet. Votes on both of these items will follow their presentation.
10:57am ET
The commissioners take their place and the meeting is set to begin. A capacity crowd is on hand to witness this historic day.
First, the Next Generation 911 item. As Public Safety Bureau Chief Jamie Barnett announces, the order takes the form of a “Notice of inquiry concerning the transition from the current, voice-only 911 system to a broadband-enabled, next-generation 911 system.” More complex participation, allowing for texts, video, and multimedia in contacting 911. After the presentation, commissioners make remarks.
11:16am ET
“It’s time to bring 911 into the digital age… 911 is an indispensible tool. Broadband can make it even better,” Chairman Genachowski says. Commissioners’ comments are roundly positive with Commissioner Baker thanking public safety professionals, first responders, and agency staff for vaulting 911 into the next generation. Vote on the Notice of Inquiry for deployment passes unanimously.
11:22am ET
We now move to the momentous item of the morning. FCC staff line the table to present the Preserving the Open Internet and Broadband Industry Practices order. Chairman Genachowski cedes the microphone to Sharon Gillette, Chief of the Wireline Competition Bureau.
“This order will establish three basic rules: transparency, no blocking, and no unreasonable discrimination,” Gillette says. “Collectively they protect and empower consumers. Provide clarity for broadband providers.”
Entrepreneurs, investors and consumers depend on these principles. Broadband providers require stability. Home broadband has grown astronomically and they now have the financial viability they seek. “Rules we propose will bring increased certainty to this vital sector of the American economy,” Paul de Sa says.
11:27am ET
Wireless Telecommunications Bureau Chief Ruth Milkman takes over. Consumers are using mobile broadband at an accelerating pace. Users are gaining greater access to a diverse range of applications and programs. Concerns have been raised about blocking. We are adopting a measured approach. Mobile providers may not block access to lawful websites or block apps that compete with their voice and video telephony services, where providers have the most incentive to leverage their position.
11:32am ET
Chief Counsel Austin Schlick details the Commission’s legal authority. The 1996 Act confers “authority and discretion to settle on the best regulatory or deregulatory approach to broadband.” We’re also charged with promoting competition, overseeing broadcasting. Blocking limits the ability of broadcasters to have equal access over the internet. “In short,” Schlick says, “the open Internet rules will permit efficient, nation-wide communications.”
11:48am ET
With the conclusion of the presentation, senior Commissioner Michael Copps begins. “It is my hope we will continue the great American Internet story… We cannot afford to relegate Internet authority to large corporations and think of what might have been.” Previous communications technologies have also fallen victim to private control. “In 2003 I warned that the Internet may be dying because of a lack of provisions.”
All we need to do is look at the history of the FCC. Commissioner Copps gives a brief history of the outgrowth of the telephone and demonstrates how its deregulated path follows that of the Internet. “Sound familiar?” Copps asks. One company, AT&T, insisted that for safety and maximum progress they needed to dominate the industry. He fears today’s order doesn’t go far enough, “in my book today’s action would and could have gone further. I considered dissent very seriously. But it’s clear to me that without action today, work on network neutrality would halt.” Copps ensures the importance of today is lost on no one. “We have in our grasp now the most promising communications technology in all of history. Needs to be responsive to all, available to all, and affordable.”
12:09pm ET
Commissioner Robert McDowell begins his dissent – “for those joining us for the first time” – by noting that over 90% of the votes at the FCC are bipartisan and unanimous. He disagrees sharply with how we should provide for an open Internet. “The era of legal Internet arbitrage has dawned,” he says. Says the measure is becoming politicized. McDowell sites several government studies to bolster his argument. His contention: nothing is broken that needs fixing; FCC does not have authority; proposed rules will cause irreparable harm.
12:23pm ET
Two lengthy statements later Commissioner Mignon Clyburn makes remarks. She will concur in part, approve in part. There are areas in the current order she would have liked strengthened. “First, I would have extended all of the fixed rules to mobile. Some communities, such as African-Americans, rely on mobile Internet more than others.” While the route taken is not the one she would have picked, she believes it is appropriate for the Commission to act. “Without an open Internet, consumers will have few choices and opportunities.”
12:44pm ET
“I really, really, really dissent,” says Commissioner Meredith Baker. The Commission put its thumb on the scale for how the Internet will operate. “At best, the majority solves a problem of its own making.” She says this order will add to uncertainty. Baker details her seven complaints, warning against preventing prospective harm.
12:53pm ET
As the final speaker of the afternoon, Chairman Genachowski takes the mantle. He opens with a quote from World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee, “The Web as we know it [is] being threatened.” Today we are adopting enforceable rules to preserve open Internet values, The freedom and openness of Internet is unprotected. No process for monitoring, no recourse for innovators, no predictability for providers.
There are those on both extremes, Chairman Genachowski says, I reject both. “We heard familiar comments today, often trotted out to oppose any government action.” The lack of basic rules of the road are starting to hamper growth. Commonsense rules are key for economic growth, job creation and competitiveness. Even after the Commission promoted Open Internet principles in 2005, we’ve seen clear deviations.
At the same time, government must not overreach or pretend to have knowledge about this dynamic and rapidly changing marketplace that we do not possess. “Today we’re adopting rules of the road that strike the right balance,” he says. “Our action will advance our goal of having America’s broadband networks be the freest and fastest in the world. And our action will ensure Internet freedom at home, a foundation of our argument for Internet freedom around the world.”
The Chairman will now lay out the key principles the order enshrines.
12:58pm ET
The six principles are as follows:
1) Transparency. Consumers and innovators have a right to know the basic performance characteristics of their Internet access and how their network is being managed.
2) No Blocking. A right to send and receive lawful traffic. This prohibits blocking of lawful content, apps, services, and the connection of non-harmful devices to the network
3) Level Playing Field. A right to a level playing field. A ban on unreasonable discrimination. No approval for so-called “pay for priority” arrangements involving fast lanes for some companies but not others.
4) Network Management. An allowance for broadband providers to engage in reasonable network management. These rules don’t forbid providers from offering subscribers tiers of service or charging based on bandwidth consumed.
5) Mobile. Broadly applicable rules requiring transparency for mobile broadband providers, and prohibiting them from blocking websites and certain competitive applications.
6) Vigilance. Creation of an Open Internet Advisory Committee to assist the Commission in monitoring the state of Internet openness and the effects of our rules.
1:07pm ET
Chairman Genachowski concludes his remarks and the afternoon’s meeting. “Today a strengthened FCC is adopting rules that empower consumers and entrepreneurs and protect free expression. These rules fulfill many promises, including a promise to the future. A promise to the companies that don’t yet exist, the entrepreneurs that haven’t yet started work in the dorm rooms or garages.”
A vote is taken and the order passes 3 – 2, with “ayes” from Genachowski, Copps and Clyburn; dissents from McDowell and Baker.
After months of hard work we have reached an important milestone in the fight to protect a free and open Internet for all Americans.
When the D.C. Circuit issued its opinion in the Comcast/BitTorrent case, it was clear the decision could affect a significant number of important recommendations in the National Broadband Plan, the Commission’s Open Internet proceeding, and other policy initiatives related to broadband. In light of the uncertainty created by the decision, the Chairman asked me to investigate all of the options available to the Commission. Other FCC staff and I have developed a proposal that we believe resolves the doubt created by the D.C. Circuit’s opinion while providing a firm legal basis for the Commission’s limited, but vital role with respect to broadband. Whether, all things considered, the legal response to Comcast sketched out in our proposal is the best one for the Commission to adopt would be for the five FCC Commissioners to answer after public comment and private study. In my judgment, it’s a question worth asking.
Issues similar to “reasonable network management” come up in the context of wiretaps and specifically the 
One interesting question is which historical developments were inevitable and which could have come out differently (e.g., was World War I inevitable?). It is impossible to know, of course, but in communications policy most commentators believe that many developments that we take for granted were historically contingent. For instance, if in the early 20th century telephone companies had (either by choice or mandate) allowed interconnection (so that customers of one network could call the customers of another network), we might not have ended up with a single company as the dominant telephony provider for most of the 20th century. Another example flows from the fact that, in allotting television stations, the FCC chose to emphasize localism. If it had instead emphasized national competition, we might have ended up with more national networks, but at the expense of having regional rather than local stations. The Internet is particularly fertile ground for historical contingency. If AT&T had not agreed in a 1956 consent decree to refrain from providing computer services, it might have dominated the field from the beginning. If a few engineers working with the Department of Defense had created their protocols a bit differently, it might be much harder to connect, and add your own voice, to the Internet. And if the government had decided to create a more easily controllable network, preventing someone like Tim Berners-Lee from adding his code on top of the existing protocols, we might not have the Web as we know it.
How would the world have been different for the past decade if we hadn’t had an open Internet? For instance, would the world know about Neda, the Iranian woman who was murdered during democracy protests? That video was captured on the spot by a citizen, quickly loaded on the Internet and then spread (for free) as bloggers and news organizations posted YouTube embeds. Over and over again, a journalist or citizen saw the video and, through the radical pro-democracy step of simply hitting Control C, Control V, spread Neda’s story.
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