14 DAY TRIAL // Comcast claims that it completely supports President Obama’s Net Neutrality proposal, except for the big part that involves reclassifying ISPs as common carriers and turning broadband into a utility.
In a blog post signed by David Cohen, Comcast Executive VP, he writes that they’ve already expressed their support for most of the points Obama made in the official White House statement that was recently revealed. “Surprise! We agree with the president’s principles on net neutrality,” Comcast’s exec writes.
He lists off that they agree that the Internet should be free and open, that there should be no blocking or throttling, that there’s a need for more transparency and none for paid prioritization.
This is the point where everyone does a double-take, however, since it’s only months ago that the entire Netflix debacle took place. Data indicated that Netflix traffic slowed down considerably months before the company agreed to pay for a peering deal. That means that Comcast has, indeed, been meddling with Netflix’s traffic speeds.
“We have publicly supported the FCC adopting new, strong Open Internet rules. We have stated on numerous occasions that we believe legally enforceable rules should continue to include strong transparency, no blocking, and anti-discrimination provisions. We don’t prioritize Internet traffic or have paid fast lanes, and have no plans to do so,” Cohen writes.
No Title II
Even so, there’s one thing that they don’t support, which is the reclassification of broadband as a telecommunications service under Title II. The company believes that doing so would harm future innovation and investment in broadband and is not necessary to put in place strong and enforceable Open Internet protections.
“We continue to believe that Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act provides more than ample authority to impose those rules,” Cohen adds. He states that being for net neutrality, but against Title II is completely consistent.
Of course, the issue is that while every ISP could adopt net neutrality on its own, no one trusts the corporations to actually keep their promises in this regard. There’s also the fact that according to the court, the FCC can’t exactly impose such rules without reclassifying broadband under Title II. Basically, the commission has two options to make ISPs obey – reclassify them as common carriers, or prove that the rules are not common carrier obligations.
While Obama may have made his point well known by now, it seems that the FCC isn’t that open to just following his orders and wants to just follow the path it’s already on.
