Tag Archives: Net Neutrality

Government Report: Sen. Peters blasts, Rep. Huizenga backs FCC ‘net neutrality’ vote

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By K.D. Norris

kdn@wktv.org

 

U.S. Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) and U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-Mich. District 2) often disagree on topics, sometimes through intermediaries such as occurs at the monthly local Government Matters meetings. So it is no surprise that the two local federal government leaders take very different views on the Federal Communications Commission’s vote last week to abolish so-called “net neutrality” rule.

 

The Federal Communications Commission voted Dec. 14, to repeal rules it had established in 2015 under President Barrack Obama’s tenure which regulated broadband businesses, including cable television providers, that connect consumers to the internet.

 

The agency scrapped net neutrality regulations that prohibited broadband providers from blocking websites or charging for higher-quality service or certain content. The federal government will also no longer regulate high-speed internet delivery as if it were a utility, like phone services.

 

Peters, in supplied material, blasted the decision; Huizenga supported the FCC action. Couriousily, however, both seem to say the final decision should rest with federally elected officials.

 

“Today’s FCC vote to scrap net neutrality protections is an anti-consumer decision that disadvantages small businesses and everyday internet users,” Peters said in a statement issued Dec. 14. “This action could usher in a two-tiered internet, where large corporations that can pay for a fast lane have the power to slow down or block content, and consumers and small businesses are relegated to the slow lane.”

 

But Huizenga, during an interview on West Michigan’s WHTC radio just prior to the FCC action, said “The Obama Administration literally went back to 1930s utility law that was set up to regulate Ma Bell, which doesn’t even exist, and then layer that onto the internet.

 

“That is not how we got a dynamic internet, how we got a free and open internet. So this is completely the wrong direction to go. … (with) the FCC is regulating it, it is the wrong place to be doing this. It previously had been under the Federal Trade Commission, and the Obama Administration wanted to put the government in control of the internet. That, to me, seems to be a mistake.”

 

Both Peters and Huizenga say they believe their opposing point-of-view is based on what is best for a “free and open internet”.

 

A Dec. 15 statement to WKTV from the Brian Patrick, Huizenga’s communication director, said: “It was President Bill Clinton working with a Republican congress that created a light touch regulatory structure for the internet which led to the greatest engine of innovation and commerce the world has ever seen. Congressman Huizenga believes the entire internet ecosystem, including tech companies, edge providers, and ISPs, should be held to the same standards when it comes to ensuring a free and open internet for consumers.”

 

Peters sees a free and open internet differently.

 

“We live in an increasingly interconnected world where a free and open internet has never been more important to Michigan’s economic success. Michigan families and small businesses rely on net neutrality protections to ensure they can achieve their goals — whether it’s reaching customers in new markets, accessing educational opportunities or connecting with loved ones around the globe. Net neutrality levels the playing field, and without these protections, consumers and entrepreneurs will face unnecessary hurdles to the economic opportunities the internet provides.”

 

However, both Peters and Huizenga also say the issue should be decided by federal action if not new legislation.

 

“In response to today’s decision, Senator Peters joined his colleagues in announcing a plan to introduce a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution that would reverse today’s FCC action and restore the agency’s 2015 net neutrality rules,” the statement from Peters’ office stated. “CRA resolutions allow Congress to overturn regulatory actions at federal agencies with a simple majority vote in both chambers.”

 

While Huizenga said, also from the WHTC interview, “I believe Congress does need to be involved in this. I have been and will continue to be so, as an advocate for making sure we have a free and open internet.”

 

Net Neutrality for Everyday People

Local Business, Local Entertainment, WKTV Projects

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Editorial by Tom Norton

“Net Neutrality.” The words are often lost on most Americans, but rarely in modern times have two words been so critical to the US economy and the basic freedoms of the average American citizen. I’ll be frank, this article is in no way an attempt to hear both sides; primarily due to the fact that “both sides” are not equal arguments.

An open internet, that is, an internet that is fully accessible by any person, anywhere in the US with no restrictions on the capacity, (as long as they pay for it) imposed on it by outside forces is the very same internet that has become a fundamental part of the US economy.

That’s a mouthful, but then so is the Internet.

Think about it for a moment. Everything, literally everything is now on the internet; business, medicine, retail sales, education, communication, television broadcast, entertainment…nearly all commerce in the USA, in some way, hums down the wires that flow up and down our streets.

Not so, just 15 years ago. The speed with which the internet has become the foundation of nearly all commerce in the US economy is much like how around 1900, very, very few businesses in the US relied on electricity. Kerosene oil lamps and some gas were the rule, but by 1920 nearly all US businesses and homes were relying on electricity. Within that short span, a business or home functioning without electricity was unthinkable and while there were no threats of corporate control of electricity the way there are threats of corporate control of the Internet, the parallels are striking.

Like electricity, the internet revolutionized the way business and communication was done. Things became more efficient, faster, smarter and in the course, just like when the economy encountered electricity, things took a giant leap forward. And the parallels don’t stop there.

Electricity in the United States is regulated by the government and the biggest factor of that regulation is that electricity in the US is completely open to all. There is no limit to what you can use, as long as you pay for it. Our representative government insists on this. Why? Visionaries early on, realized how fundamentally important electricity and an open electrical grid would be for an economy to grow and the fact that that insistence worked so well for the economy has become the paradigm for the Internet today.

Of course what triggered all of this was the bad corporate behavior that experts warned us about more than a decade ago. The concern was that private corporations, controlling the internet, would use that control to stifle competition and innovation that may have threatened their private business model. That’s precisely what large cable providers did to Netflix; all the while insisting that they weren’t.

Netflix was suspicious that their internet connectivity to consumer’s homes was being “throttled.” Placed in a “slow lane,” if you will. Consumers, annoyed that the product they purchased from Netflix wouldn’t download were then being offered a “competing” product from cable providers, which, wouldn’t you know, moved lickity split through the internet they were controlling. A classic case.

Imagine, if you will, that Michigan’s power grid was controlled private corporations and here in Michigan, Chrysler had controlling stock. Let’s say that beginning in the late 1920’s, Chrysler, acting on that control, (and again because the electric grid was unregulated) began choking off the electricity supply to GM factories, supplying only half what was needed and demanding they pay more than others if they wanted the exact same service. Imagine how crippling it would have been to GM and how that lack of competition would have damaged our economy. We wouldn’t know what we missed, except we all would be driving Chryslers. If that sounds like extortion, in fact it is and its absolutely no way for an economy to operate if it’s going to be robust, competitive and nurture innovation.

But it is what cable providers and phone companies were ready to do and already doing with the Internet.   By attempting to control the Internet, these private corporate interests were regulating it their own way; putting a stranglehold on competitors and holding them hostage for huge sums of money, or else…your internet speeds would slow to a trickle and your company which used the Internet as a foundation, would be forced out of business.

That sounds more like Economics 101 in Putin’s Russia than in the United States.

If the US economy were not nearly 100% reliant on the Internet for survival this might not make such a big deal; just another aspect of the shark tank that business swims in. Fortunately with the recent re-classification of the internet by the FCC, the federal government recognized that the big fish eating all the little fish is no way to advance economic growth and such behavior by the giant corporations would in fact stifle growth, threatening the common good. Precisely the same way it would have done had private corporate interests been able to put a stranglehold on the electrical grid or the railroads.

Thankfully the federal government recognized the fundamental importance of electricity to economic activity. The fed ensured that electricity was completely open to anyone for as much as they wanted as long as they paid for what they used and (this is the key) the prices were not rigged to destroy competition. It’s a near precise parallel to the argument in favor of internet neutrality, or ‘net neutrality.’

In essence, the internet, like the electrical grid, must remain perfectly neutral. It’s irrelevant who is using the Internet and for what. You simply pay a fair price for what you use and no one decides to give you less and the other guy more. This way, the Internet is a tool for business to use and expand on, instead of being used as a weapon by a few goliaths to crush anyone who dared to compete with them.

The neutrality of the electrical grid heavily contributed to making the US economy the largest, wealthiest, most resilient economy in the world. I shudder to think how much smaller our economy would be without a neutral electrical grid 100 years ago and I rejoice at the prospect of economic growth based on a completely neutral and fully open Internet.   FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and the three commissioners who voted with him did precisely the right thing when they re-classified the internet as open to all. History (and the nation’s economy) will smile on this decision.

Tom Norton is the General Manager of WKTV Community Media & Television and has been a producer and leader involved in television and communications for nearly 30 years.