Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

[Thomas Beckett <thomas AT tbeckett.com>]

We in the mountains know that it's stretching things quite a bit to call 
Heath Shuler a Democrat.

TaB

christian stalberg wrote:
> http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/10/16/blue-bell-democrats-ask-fcc-to-tone-it-down-on-net-neutrality/
>  
> OCTOBER 16, 2009, 4:24 PM ET
>  
> ‘Blue Bell’ Democrats Ask FCC to Tone It Down on Net Neutrality
>  
>
> By Amy Schatz
>
> In the long fight over open Internet, or net neutrality 
> <http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/09/18/net-neutrality-in-the-spotlight/>, 
> rules on Internet providers, we’re still essentially in pre-game.
>
> shuler_D_20091016163757.jpg
> Getty Images
> Rep. Heath Shuler, one of the Democratic congressmen calling for the FCC 
> to tone down its proposed net-neutrality rules.
>
> You’d never know it from the flurry of lobbying across the country this 
> week.
>
> On Friday, it was House Democrats’ turn, when 72 members sent a letter 
> to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski 
> <http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/fcc_20091016.pdf>, 
> asking him to soften a net-neutrality proposal the agency is expected to 
> approve next week.
>
> The lawmakers urged the FCC to “carefully consider the full range of 
> potential consequences that government action may have on network 
> investment,” while crafting the proposed rules. Phone and cable 
> companies have been making similar points to the FCC, arguing the agency 
> should avoid rules that will hobble their ability to manage their 
> networks and stifle investment.
>
> The letter added that “we would urge you to avoid tentative conclusions 
> which favor government regulation” and that “we remain suspicious of 
> conclusions based on slogans rather than substance and of policies that 
> restrict and inhibit the very innovation and growth that we all seek to 
> achieve.”
>
> There are plenty of things rumored to be in the proposed rules — which 
> haven’t been released yet — that have Internet providers fuming 
> <http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/09/21/net-neutrality-speech-draws-strong-reactions/>.
>
> But none appears to have phone and cable companies as apoplectic as one 
> proposal, circulated by Genachowski, which says that net-neutrality 
> rules would apply to all parts of an Internet pipe, not just the chunk 
> that’s set aside for Internet traffic.
>
> Phone and cable companies divvy up space on their fiber lines for 
> different things, including phone service, pay-TV channels and other 
> premium services, like private corporate-data networks. They’re 
> concerned that the FCC will have veto power over whether they can offer 
> these sorts of “managed services” on their networks.
>
> The FCC mailroom has been working overtime this week keeping up with the 
> deluge of letters that have been arriving from congressmen, governors 
> and state legislators. They, in turn, have been getting visits from 
> cable or phone lobbyists who are in the midst of an all-hands-on-deck 
> effort to get changes to the proposed rules before they’re released.
>
> At last count, there have been 11 letters from governors (a mix of 
> Republicans and Democrats), 18 Republican Senators, House minority 
> leadership and now, the 72 House Democrats, which includes 18 members of 
> the Congressional Black Caucus, 31 Blue Dog Democrats and 10 members of 
> the House Energy & Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over the FCC.
>
> On Thursday, the Communications Workers of America weighed in on the 
> side of phone companies (which employ thousands of CWA members) and 
> asked the agency to have a “reasoned discussion” about the rules and 
> focus on ones that don’t prompt phone companies to halt network investments.
>
> Net-neutrality advocates weren’t happy about the letter from the 
> congressional Democrats, dubbing them “Blue Bell” Democrats — in honor 
> of the fact that lobbyists for the former Baby Bell phone companies have 
> been pounding the halls of Capitol Hill this week trying to get support 
> for the letter.
>
> “In parroting the misinformation put forward by the big telecom 
> companies, the Blue Bell Caucus only condemns their constitutes to 
> inferior service and limited opportunities to succeed in an 
> Internet-based economy,” said Gigi Sohn, president of Public Knowledge, 
> a digital-rights interest group that’s lobbied for net-neutrality rules.
>
> Meanwhile, the FCC took the unusual step of saying 
> <http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-294028A1.pdf> 
> that anyone else who wants to weigh in on the proposed rules can post a 
> comment on one of its new broadband blogs 
> <http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/08/19/fcc-steps-it-up-online/>. The 
> agency usually bans lobbying on issues it’s considering a week before 
> the vote.
>
>
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Thomas A. Beckett        "At the intersection of business & creativity."
828-713-1668                  Hendersonville & Asheville, North Carolina
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