Press Release
Free Press Calls for Swift FCC Action to Protect Internet Users
Contact: Timothy Karr, 201-533-8838
WASHINGTON -- In reply comments filed yesterday with the Federal Communications Commission, Free Press debunked industry arguments against the agency's proposal to re-establish a legal framework that allows it to set broadband policy. Free Press called for the FCC to move forward quickly with a vote on Chairman Julius Genachowski’s “third way” proposal so the agency can continue to protect consumers and promote innovation in the broadband marketplace.
S. Derek Turner, Free Press research director, said:
"The FCC cannot carry out the National Broadband Plan or protect Internet users unless it restores its authority to regulate broadband. The FCC chairman’s proposal is a sensible, limited revision that rescues the agency from a failed legal experiment conducted by the previous administration. In this proceeding, the phone and cable companies and other reflexive opponents of regulation use breathless hyperbole and veiled threats to obscure the basic fact that the FCC must be able to exercise basic oversight over the communications networks of the 21st century.
"We urge the Commission to follow through on its sensible proposal, ignore the cynical attacks of industry-funded critics, and focus on its duty to faithfully implement the Communications Act. America has already lost too much waiting for the agency to formulate a national broadband policy, and it would be irresponsible to delay further simply because industry wishes for the FCC to have no authority over broadband communications."
S. Derek Turner, Free Press research director, said:
"The FCC cannot carry out the National Broadband Plan or protect Internet users unless it restores its authority to regulate broadband. The FCC chairman’s proposal is a sensible, limited revision that rescues the agency from a failed legal experiment conducted by the previous administration. In this proceeding, the phone and cable companies and other reflexive opponents of regulation use breathless hyperbole and veiled threats to obscure the basic fact that the FCC must be able to exercise basic oversight over the communications networks of the 21st century.
"We urge the Commission to follow through on its sensible proposal, ignore the cynical attacks of industry-funded critics, and focus on its duty to faithfully implement the Communications Act. America has already lost too much waiting for the agency to formulate a national broadband policy, and it would be irresponsible to delay further simply because industry wishes for the FCC to have no authority over broadband communications."
