Progress & Freedom Foundation Statement on FCC Broadband “Third Way” Plan
Adam Thierer, Mike Wendy
June 17, 2010

Progress & Freedom Foundation comments on the announcement of the Federal Communications Commission’s vote to move forward with a Notice of Inquiry (NOI) to regulate the Internet under “Title II” classification.  This move to reclassify under Title II would define Internet provision as a telecommunications service.

Thierer believes this to be an “…ongoing ‘by-any-means-necessary’ quest to regulate the Internet via Net Neutrality mandates,” and goes on to say that, “Chairman Genachowski’s FCC continues to flaunt the rule of law and magically invent its own authority as it goes along.”

Progress & Freedom Foundation recently released a report with suggestions for an alternative to reclassification. (A summary of that paper can be found here.)  Thierer contends that this move by the FCC will be a dagger to the heart of “one of the great deregulatory success stories of modern economic history.”  And furthermore believes that this move will wave in a “Lost Decade” for the Internet due to “stymied investment, innovation, and job creation as all sides wage battle over the legality of reclassification and its implementation.”

You can find the full report here.