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 “Given the outdated statute,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