^{Democracy & Technology Blog} Industry reaffirms commitment to free Internet

Yesterday the head of the trade association representing most of the nation’s telephone companies testified that telephone companies will not block, impair or degrade what consumers and vendors can do on the Internet.

“Today, I make the same commitment to you that our member companies make to their Internet customers: We will not block, impair, or degrade content, applications, or services. That is the plainest and most direct way I know to address concerns that have been raised about net neutrality.”
–Walter B. McCormick, Jr.
President and Chief Executive Officer
United States Telecom Association
February 7, 2006

As a practical matter, a voluntary commitment is significant because it is a de facto standard by which the actions of individual companies will be measured by consumers, investors, regulators, legislators, judges and the press. The mistakes and excesses become easier to fix because the range of what is subjectively okay and not okay is significantly narrowed. As if this weren’t enough, the FCC has a similar policy. Some argue that the FCC’s “ancillary jurisdiction” may limit its freedom of action to enforce the policy. I completely disagree. In 1968, the Supreme Court upheld the FCC’s use of ancillary jurisdiction to regulate the cable industry even though Congress had declined to pass a cable act. If the FCC needs to take enforcement action in the future to prevent blocking, impairment or degradation on the Internet, a reviewing court now has a standard as well as precendent to follow.
To the extent that net neutrality was ever a problem, it has been effectively solved.