by Michael Copps

Clocking in at nearly 400 pages, the Communications Act of 1934 and its amendments are recommended reading only for insomniacs. There are Washington lawyers who’ve devoted their entire careers to understanding its complexities, only to retire in frustration. But the tome is held together by a single theme, repeated in chapter after chapter: It demands that the Federal Communications Commission, the agency Congress created to watch over the nation’s communications infrastructure, serve “the public interest, convenience and necessity.”

Measured against that simple but all-important standard, the FCC’s proposed rules on Net neutrality fall pitifully short.

Assuming press reports of its content are correct, the draft circulated by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler abandons core principles of non-discrimination. Instead of treating web content equally – key to keeping the Internet a place where all can speak, and be heard – it invites Internet Service Providers like Time Warner Cable and Verizon to create super-fast online lanes for the 1 percent and slow, crowded lanes for everyone else.

If this proposal is adopted, popular and well-funded services like Netflix and HBO Go would pay premium prices to move content quickly, no doubt passing the costs along to customers. Less affluent competitors would be left to watch their businesses dry up, abandoned by consumers frustrated by slow downloads and frozen screens. Innovative upstarts may never even find their way to market, unable to foot the bill for priority access.

The Internet is creating an inter-connected world, where ideas and commerce move at the speed of light. To serve the public interest, the FCC ought to focus on ensuring that this transformative power is available to every American, regardless of geographic locale or socioeconomic station.

So far the commission has done a middling job. While Americans pay more and get less broadband than residents of other nations, at least until recently their access to content was determined by their preferences, not tolls imposed by their Internet Service Providers. With a quality broadband connection, senior shut-ins have been able to connect with family, students in disadvantaged schools have had use of distance learning to take advanced coursework and small businesses could connect with new customers.

The chairman’s proposal takes a gigantic step backwards. Because end-users will ultimately pay the tolls for services using the proposed fast lanes online, connectivity inevitably will become less affordable.

Worse yet, once corporate gatekeepers get control, the Internet could quickly devolve into a world in which disfavored speech is degraded, forced into page loads that last for hours rather than seconds. The FCC assures us that it’s writing rules that will prevent service providers from censoring consumer access online, but to date it has offered precious few specifics. As more and more of our political discourse occurs online – where voters inform themselves and advocates get organized – weak Open Internet rules jeopardize our 21st century self-governance.

Wheeler’s proposed half-measures represent an opportunity lost. Thankfully, it is not too late for the FCC to scrap this plan and write rules that guarantee competition and free expression online. That would be a refreshing development – the FCC doing its job to protect consumers and deliver the benefits of 21st century communications to the other 99 percent.

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Action:  Call FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler:   202-418-1000

Contact your congressman who can also contact Tom Wheeler on our behalf.  There is a bill in congress now HR 3982 The Open Internet Preservation Act.  There is a companion bill in the senate.  Call on your Congressman today to take action to preserve the free and open internet.