Communications Workers of America Proposes “Middle Ground” To Protect an Open Internet

Washington, D.C. – The Communications Workers of America today mapped out a middle course for the Federal Communications Commission to follow in crafting rules to protect an open and free internet.

In reply comments submitted to the FCC’s Open Internet Proceeding, the CWA noted that the FCC’s National Broadband Plan sets ambitious broadband deployment goals to bring our nation’s infrastructure to global standards, which will be financed mostly with private capital. Therefore, as the Commission crafts open Internet rules, it can, and should, chart a middle course by adopting rules that will maintain a free and open Internet while preserving adequate incentives to promote job-creating investment in innovative broadband networks.

CWA pointed out that network providers made capital investments of more than 11 times that of application providers in 2008 and 2009, and employed almost ten times more Americans in good-paying family supporting jobs than the application providers.

CWA also said network providers must have the flexibility they need to manage and innovate over their networks. In turn, consumers should be protected from “unjust and unreasonable” discrimination on the Internet. Such a standard would protect consumers’ ability to access all legal content on the Internet without foreclosing their ability to experience the specialized quality of service needed for telemedicine, distance learning, public safety, entertainment and other purposes.

CWA noted that while the recent Comcast decision may affect the FCC’s legal reasoning in this proceeding, the court’s decision does not affect the soundness of the policies the Commission must employ to adopt the proposed rules. In the meantime, the CWA is urging industry to agree voluntarily to the FCC’s existing four Internet Principles, as well as a fifth regarding transparency that would require providers to report the actual speeds, reliability, contract terms, privacy policies, service limits and traffic management policies.

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