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Verizon CEO Slams FCC, Wants Congress In Charge

Mar 30, 2015, 12:58 PM by Eric M. Zeman

Verizon Communications CEO Lowell McAdam pleaded with Congress to "re-take responsibility for policymaking in the Internet ecosystem" in a letter sent Friday to the House and Senate Commerce committees. Lowell pointed to the FCC's recently proposed net neutrality rules and Dish Network's "abuse" of the AWS-3 bidding process as indicators that things have gone off the rails. "For the past few weeks, telecom and technology issues have been prominent in the news," wrote Lowell, "but unfortunately for all the wrong reasons." Lowell believes the 1996 Telecommunications Act is now horribly outdated and needs to be re-thought by Congress. "The existing legal regime and its accompanying regulatory processes are outdated and broken. It is time for Congress to re-take responsibility for policymaking in the Internet ecosystem." Lowell asked Congress first to come up with a short-term solution to curb the FCC's net neutrality rules with bipartisan legislation, and then to follow it up with a fully revised set of policies for governing the internet. "Congress [needs] to assert its longstanding role of setting, in a bipartisan fashion, public policies for the communications sector that both protect consumers and provide incentives for investment and innovation in new products and services." The FCC wants to reclassify broadband providers under Title II of the Telecommunications Act of 1934, which would brand them common carriers and allow the FCC to regulate them more stringently.

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Comments

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This forum is closed.

bluecoyote

Mar 30, 2015, 3:29 PM

Where's your promised network expansion you cheap ass?

The one you took gov't subsidies for then decided you could rely on loopholes and exception clauses to not build?

Brad K

Where's the apologies from people who claimed that net neutrality would not inhibit network improvements?

Proponents of this denied and denied claims that it would slow network enhancements and raise prices. Now that the rules are out and you see ...
(continues)

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Slammer

Mar 30, 2015, 6:19 PM
edited

Expected This

Pick any two of these largest carriers, and you would be right to guess why these two have a love/hate relationship with the FCC. History has proved time and time again that when the FCC looks favorable on the two, they are treated with kindness and appreciation. But, forbid the FCC should counter in a bold move to oversee a decrease in consumer advocacy. Then the FCC is very bad and evil in the eyes of the the two largest carriers and look to the government for support.

The FCC was appointed as a part of the government to oversee the telecom industry. When they do good, no one cares. When they do bad, everyone thinks they have no right to be in existence. While many think the FCC crosses a threshold in juristiction, the bottom line is, d...
(continues)

Brad K

Well AT&T and Verizon have their shareholders to answer to, the problem is who oversees the FCC?

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jhr2112

Mar 30, 2015, 2:44 PM

Hell no..

Net neutrality is great for consumers and small start ups..Time to have more competition and less monopolistic behavior from these giant telecoms.

Zpike

Yay, for the real capitalists! I've had my fill of crony capitalism.

Slammer

This is one of the sweet spots. This forces the larger telecoms to actually work for the consumers. If not, startups and these smaller companies will start witnessing a build in customer adds.

John B.

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Zpike

Mar 30, 2015, 2:35 PM

Good

I hope congress does get involved. We probably need some internet specific legislation that recognizes the internet as a marketplace in and of itself (probably the largest marketplace in the world), and that prevents companies like Verizon from abusing it. Furthermore, we need some legislation that busts up these telecommunications giants and prevents them from having monopolistic influence over the market. I have no problem with new legislation that more specifically addresses the needs of the internet and with classifying ISP's under that legislation instead. I have always maintained that Title II is not a perfect solution, but has up to this point been the best thing on the table.

jhr2112

I agree, but with the current republican atmosphere in congress, it will only get worse.They tend to give these big corporations what they want, not what is good for consumers..

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