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PCCA Journal|1

st

Quarter 2011

19

Verizon Urges Congress

to Update Antiquated

Telecom Rules

W

ith a highly innova-

tive and competitive

internet ecosys-

tem now a critical

resource for consumers and increas-

ingly important to America’s economic

growth, Verizon says that Congress must

act to address telecommunications poli-

cies that are broken.

“The grinding you hear are the gears

churning as policymakers try to fit

fast-changing technologies and competi-

tive markets into regulatory boxes built

for analog technologies and monopoly

markets,” said Tom Tauke, Verizon’s

executive vice president of public affairs,

policy and communications, in discuss-

ing Federal Communications Commis-

sion policies. Tauke pointed out that

on the issue of net neutrality, the FCC’s

focus was limited to how internet service

providers might degrade or block inter-

net traffic and not on other sectors of

the internet marketplace where similar

consumer harm could take place.

“A key reason why the FCC doesn’t

consider the activities of those who con-

trol operating systems or applications is

that the FCC looks at the world from the

standpoint of its jurisdiction rather than

from the perspective of the consumer,”

Tauke said. “Given the outdated statute,

that’s somewhat understandable. But

from a reasonable person’s perspective,

that approach makes no sense. That is

why we need Congress to update the

law.”

Tauke laid out four components to a

new policy to guide the internet eco-

system: The policy should be a federal

framework. Because of the innovative

nature of the marketplace, the frame-

work should not involve anticipatory

rulemaking, but rather principles that

allow for case-by-case adjudication. The

test for government intervention in the

marketplace should be to prevent either

harm to consumers or anti-competitive

activity. And a single federal agency

should be given clear jurisdiction.

As part of any regulatory overhaul,

Tauke said, safeguards surrounding

cyber security and privacy need to be

addressed. He also called for a revamp-

ing of the subsidy programs for universal

access to communications.

News Briefs continued on page 46