Overview
“Open access”, the ability of any citizen to chose their Internet service provider (ISP), access any content or service, and transmit any information desired, is the hallmark of the existing Internet. The medium has thus become, in the words of the Supreme Court “as diverse as human thought.” Low barriers to entry and broad accessibility have allowed anyone who wishes to make information available throughout the world, or organize communities across vast distances.
But nothing dictates it will remain this way. The Internet evolved as an open medium because, early in its evolution, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued regulations requiring that telephone companies open their networks to these competing services and that they carry the traffic of rivals without interference.
For years, the FCC has refused to require cable companies to open their networks in the same way that they required the telephone companies to open their networks to the dial-up Internet. As a result, millions of Americans who can receive broadband Internet only via cable must accept the monopoly terms of their cable company.
In many cities (although, for technical reasons, not in rural and not in some suburban areas) telephone companies offer a competing form of broadband called “DSL.” The FCC rules that guaranteed open access in dial-up also required open access for DSL. Although technically inferior and more complicated to use than cable broadband, DSL at least offered some subscribers to use the ISP of their choice and unimpeded access to all Internet content or services.
The FCC has now announced it will end the rules that require telephone companies to open their DSL lines to other ISPs. From now on, DSL subscribers will not have a choice of provider. The FCC describes this as “regulatory parity” that will “spur broadband investment” by the phone companies.
Instead, it will kill the free expression that makes the Internet so vital a part of modern life. The technology allows cable and phone companies to subtly interfere with users trying to access rival content, while making it easy to access the cable or phone companies’ own content. Cable companies have also negotiated deals with the largest ISPs to transition narrowband subscribers to broadband services under cable terms. Already major ISPs speak of changing their broadband service to a “premium cable” type service. Users would roam through “walled gardens” of cable content with diminished opportunities to create their own content or seek content from others.
When MAP began to fight for open access in 1998, few heeded the warnings that the Internet could lose its free and open nature. Now, with over 20% of Americans receiving the Internet via broadband connections, changes have already begun to occur. As more people transition from the open dial-up Internet to the walled garden of cable broadband, the “taming” of the Internet will continue. By the time major changes in the character of the Internet are noticeable, it will be too late. The time to act to protect the Internet is now.
- FCC Advocacy — MAP has pushed hard for the FCC to create an open access regime for broadband. MAP has participated in numerous FCC proceedings, and met repeatedly with FCC officials from the staff level to the Chairman of the FCC to press the open access case.
- Judicial Advocacy — MAP has filed briefs before Federal courts across the country, including the Supreme Court, in cases involving open access.
- Merger Review — Several mergers of large cable companies have threatened to further consolidate the emerging broadband industry and combine control of the most desirable content with control of the conduit. MAP successfully advocated for open access provisions in the AOL/Time Warner merger before the Federal Trade Commission and the FCC.
- Community Outreach — MAP has worked hard to alert the broader public interest community to the need for open access and explain the complex legal issues involved.
- Broader Outreach/Education — MAP plays an important role in advocating for open access in the court of public opinion. Mainstream and trade press reporters regularly turn to MAP for explanations of court or FCC decisions, and MAP devotes considerable resources to educating reporters, writing articles (from scholarly articles in law journals to opinion pieces for popular newspapers), attending conferences, and appearing on panels.
- Wireless Internet — As wireless technologies gain broader deployment, MAP is expanding its open access campaign to include wireless Internet access, which is currently adopting proprietary protocols and a closed architecture.