Today I attended the first day of the Winter Conference of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, in Washington, D.C.
NTIA’s Assistant Secretary Larry Strickling kicked-off the day and provided an update on the BTOP grants program – first and second rounds. With less than 10% of the first round grants awarded, there are still many more projects to be awarded. Assistant Secretary Strickling knows that the clock is running and they are trying to move quickly to get the funds out the door. However, he said the most important thing is that five years from now these projects (that are funded) are still going. They don’t want to fund any failures.
The highlight of the program today was a panel on net neutrality, with representatives from Comcast, AT&T, Google, Free Press, ITTA (association representing mid-size telephone companies) speaking for and against the need for FCC net neutrality rules. A representative from the FCC’s Wireline Bureau also spoke and defined the FCC’s interest in an Open Internet and the current proceeding.
Speakers for Comcast, AT&T and ITTA all stated support the FCC’s current four open Internet principles and do not believe the six proposed open Internet rules are needed. Google and Free Press disagreed, endorsing the proposed rules. There was a brief discussion about reasonable network management, but the most interesting topic was regarding the question of the risks of openness anywhere in the ecosystem, not just at the point of the Internet Service Provider. There was a particularly pointed exchange between a state commissioner and Google regarding its own blocking behavior. Isn’t that an issue as well?
Very interesting panel!
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