Net Neutrality Rules for Content Providers Pressed at Comptel; FCC Focusing on ISPs

GRAPEVINE, Texas -- American Cable Association CEO Matthew Polka pressed at the Comptel convention for net neutrality rules to apply to content providers as well as ISPs. But Wireline Bureau Deputy Chief Matthew DelNero said the rulemaking the FCC is considering, as well as those preceding it, have focused on ISPs. The goal, DelNero said, was preserving the ability of “innovators and consumers” to determine the success of applications and content on the Internet without the “permission or consent” of ISPs. But DelNero again said “all options are on the table."

During a contract dispute, Viacom had flashed a message on some of its programming sites, saying Cable One was blocking access to those sites, Polka said. “If an ISP did the same kind of thing, we'd immediately be taken to net neutrality court and fined if not jailed.” Viacom wasn’t immediately available for comment. Suddenlink also this week alleged that Viacom is blocking access for its programming to be seen online by the cable operator’s broadband subscribers.

Regulation isn’t necessary to settle such commercial disputes, said Public Knowledge CEO Gene Kimmelman, who opposes expanding rules to content providers. A case like the one Polka described was one of “free speech,” Kimmelman said, in which the cable company could have responded to customers, pinning the problem on Viacom.

Since the order, there has largely been no blocking or degrading -- “so far everything is going well,” argued Melissa Newman, CenturyLink senior vice president-federal policy and regulatory affairs. There’s a cost to ISPs of keeping up with the “ever expanding growth in content,” she said, and some experimentation and innovation should be allowed to figure how that should work. “My mom has never streamed video in her life,” Newman said, questioning whether the capacity for things like streaming should be “something everybody in society should pay for.”

There’s “nothing wrong with looking at cost and causation,” Kimmelman said, but “there ought to be rules.” Those rules should be based on Communications Act Title II, he said.