The Free State Foundation held their Annual Winter Telecom Policy Conference last Friday, drawing in a packed crowd to hear experts and leaders from the FCC discuss issues like investment, net neutrality, and the national broadband plan.   The morning kicked off with a keynote address from FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell, who says the FCC must “first, do no harm,” also believes that if the FCCC were to adopt stringent Net neutrality regulations, the question of the agency’s legal ability to do so would likely go to court. You can read the full text of McDowell’s speech here.

Speaking on behalf of the FCC, Paul de Sa, Chief of the Office of Strategic Planning and Policy Analysis, offered his insider view of the FCC’s soon-to-be-released Broadband Plan.  de Sa reminded the audience and fellow panelists that what’s not in the strategic plan is as important as what’s in it.  “The point of the plan is to figure out what our focus should be,” he said.

The panel on Net neutrality was, of course, the most impassioned. There is core agreement that the Internet is a unique ecosystem and that we want to promote innovation, and even transparency.  However, there is an outstanding question of whether there is even a problem to be solved by regulation and if so, who has the authority and oversight to do so?  Verizon’s Tom Tauke says solution is in industry self-governance, suggesting the processes at the FCC are too slow for the rapid pace of the Internet.  Similarly, Rob Atkinson of ITIF believes that we should be especially cautious in about potential harms of regulation on our thriving Internet ecosystem and innovation.

Professor Christopher Yoo brought a new dynamic to the Net neutrality dialogue, beginning with a discussion of how the current architecture of the Internet is fundamentally inefficient.  “The Internet was designed for point-to-point connection,” he said, noting that we now have needs like security, mobility, interactive media, cloud computing, and more.  With that, he urges that without even consensus among technical experts and the engineering community about how the Internet should run, we should refrain from imposing regulations.

Watch the video below or click here for more of Prof. Christopher Yoo’s views on Net neutrality.

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