Larry Downes, a nonresident fellow at the Stanford Law School Center for Internet & Society, wrote a compelling article this week in CNET talking about his perception that the Obama Administration is retreating from a militant version of Net neutrality regulations first outlined by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski in September. As part of NextGenWeb’s continued effort to bring you fresh, timely content around all current broadband discussions, you should check out our interview with Mr. Downes done just yesterday at this year’s International CES.
In the article, Downes references a letter signed by 72 congressional Democrats opposing the FCC’s proposed rules soon after they were announced. He also says that the Adminstration is starting to realize that nationwide, affordable broadband service is a more pressing priority, a sentiment echoed by key House Energy & Commerce Committee staffer Neil Fried, who advises two lead minority members Reps. Joe Barton and Cliff Stearns, as reported on by Kim Hart at The Hill.
Fried points out that nationwide broadband coverage would require an additional investment of $350 billion, much of it for fiber optic cabling. He says that while the FCC was developing its plan and spending “too much time on Net neutrality,” that the America’s broadband providers had already invested $60 billion toward that effort. “Satisfying the goals of the national broadband plan will require significant private investment,” Fried continued.
Downes says it best in that CNET article, “The major carriers are making the investments, and have every business reason to make more … but Net neutrality is making Wall Street uncomfortable about financing broadband deployment. That in turn is making the White House nervous.”
Stay tuned to NextGenWeb for continued reporting around these important policy discussions.
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January 24th, 2010 at 8:37 pm
[...] “Stanford Fellow Says White House Retreating on Net Neutrality”, NextGenWeb, Jan. 9, 2010. One of several interviews Larry gave at CES regarding his Net Neutrality post on CNET during the conference. [...]