Net-neutrality advocates want FCC reg reviews, new broadband direction

FCC rulings that inhibit or don't promote open broadband competition and net neutrality should be subject to review, says Free Press. The open-Internet advocates also want broadband to be classed as a telecommunications service, effectively imposing open-access rules to ISPs. It's also calling for a morphing of the Universal Service Fund into a broadband service underwriter.

"America's broadband failures are the result of policy failures and the blame falls squarely on the FCC's shoulders," said Free Press research director S. Derek Turner, author of the report. "The FCC predicted a future of broadband competition, and then regulated as if it were already here. While promising consumer benefits, it tore down consumer protections. Digital deregulation reduced the broadband revolution to broadband mediocrity."

Acting FCC Chairman Michael Copps acknowledged the broadband issues facing the FCC saying they "were ignored for far too long."

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