Broadband providers, net neutrality advocates at odds over stimulus plan

Jake Widman
Tuesday, 24 March 2009 07:44

Your IT - Home IT

As U.S. telecoms prepare to receive $7.2 billion in stimulus money to be used for increasing broadband access in rural and other underserved areas, they are sparring with consumer groups over whether the public funding should obligate them to treat all traffic equally.

The stimulus bill states that any networks built with the funds must meet the "nondiscrimination and network interconnection obligations" outlined by the Federal Communications Commission 2005. But that principle, say net neutrality advocates, isn't strong enough to prevent carriers from manipulating network traffic for their own benefit.

During a panel discussion at the U.S. Department of Commerce, Ben Scott, policy director for the consumer group Free Press, said, "The federal government is not a charity for broadband providers. It is an investor." "There should be no unnecessary discrimination between different kinds of online content," Scott continued. "It's basic and fundamental and it does not lend itself to half measures."

Industry groups, on the other hand, think the FCC principle is just fine as it is. "The idea that we should lay additional and unknown regulations on top of the task of the people getting this grant money is, I think, troubling at best," said Jonathan Banks of the U.S. Telecom Association. "You need to build broadband to these people, and we don't need to raise the potential costs of doing that."

The federal National Telecommunications and Information Administration plans to hold several more meetings to discuss neutrality issues, as well as to decide which communities most need the money. The first round of stimulus grants is scheduled for this spring, the second one for the fall, and the third in the spring of 2010.