Hill telecom talks consider targeted broadband bill

Stakeholders at the first congressional meeting on overhauling communications law discussed whether there is room for targeted legislation to clarify broadband regulatory questions, according to Media Access Project's senior vice president Andrew Jay Schwartzman, who attended the meeting.

The group of over 30 stakeholders from across the telecommunications landscape — including broadband providers, content companies, think tankers, and others — had a chance to air their views and search for areas of accord at a staff-led discussion Friday morning.

But the process made it clear a bill is a long way off, according to Schwartzman and others in the meeting. Follow-up meetings are planned throughout July.

"It was a lot of broad, general statements of position," Schwartzman said. "There was not a lot of outright disagreement, and people were looking to find areas of agreement."

The parties discussed what powers the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has over broadband service providers and whether it has enough authority to implement the National Broadband Plan, its strategy for expanding Internet access, according to sources in the meeting.

The participants also looked at what characteristics a possible net neutrality rule might have if targeted legislation were to be shaped, they said, but the usual disagreements on this remained intact.

The effort to examine communications law follows an April appeals court decision that thrust into uncertainty the bounds of the FCC’s legal authority to regulate broadband issues, including whether it has the muscle to enforce net neutrality rules.

Proponents of net neutrality rules argue the slow pace of the legislative process means the FCC must seek to clarify its legal authority over broadband access providers rather than wait for Congress — an effort it launched in June.

"Everyone here knows that nothing can happen this year," Schwartzman said. "That doesn't make [legislative discussions] a worthless process."

U.S. Telecom, which represents the broadband providers, declined to comment on the meetings. Big providers have called for the FCC to let Congress clarify broadband questions rather than boost its authority on its own.

The chairmen of the authorizing committees called last month to update the Communications Act of 1934, which was last overhauled as the Telecommunications Act of 1996 after a lobbying battle that dragged on for years.

FCC-brokered negotiations are also taking up the the question of net neutrality rules. They include Verizon, AT&T, the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, Google, Skype and the Open Internet Coalition.