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i'd like to welcome reid hunt to
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knowledge at wharton today reid is a
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former chairman of the federal
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communications commission i want to ask
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you
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what you think about the president
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president obama recently coming out in
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favor of net neutrality i ask you as a
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former chairman of the fcc and uh
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obviously knowledgeable about these
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issues
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but also in the context there's a
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professor here kevin wereback who has
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said along with others that the real
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danger to
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the internet ecosystem in the us is the
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dearth of competition at the broadband
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provider level so in light of all that
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what what was your what's your view on
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net neutrality and what's what's
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happened
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based on the president's statements so
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there are two things about the
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president's statement the first is that
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he made his statement on youtube this is
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a case where the medium is the message
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he was basically saying you see me on
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youtube here
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everybody in america
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ought to have the capability to get
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access to this content or any other
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content they want without having to ask
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the permission of the internet service
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provider
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he was basically saying without
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without using these words
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the internet service provider should not
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be a sensor or an editor or a gatekeeper
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who says what website you can get to or
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whether or not when you get to that
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website you can actually watch the video
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in a high enough quality
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he was basically saying there shouldn't
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be any discrimination imposed on your
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personal preferences
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by the fact that you're limited to just
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one or two companies that are giving you
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internet service so it should access
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like a telephone line in the old days
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and you can call anyone you want is that
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the idea that's basically what he said
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um so that was pretty cool the medium
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was the message right uh and the second
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thing he said was
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he didn't use exactly these words but i
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think this was also
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pretty pretty clear
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fcc you have had a lot of trouble
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getting the courts to accept your rules
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and you've clued together lots of
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different compromises
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just say
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the following
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there is one single
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common medium of communication for the
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united states and from the world and it
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is called the internet
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it doesn't need a lot of rules but from
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time to time we might need the fcc to
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establish some rules that will guarantee
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just two things
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everybody will have access to this
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medium
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and number two when you have access to
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it you get to go to the websites that
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you want to and you get to do the
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picking
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that's what he told the fcc now what
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that means legally is
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please invoke title ii of the law
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but his message was not meant to be
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bogged down in the legal niceties he was
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saying
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just do it declare it title ii
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you don't need that many rules but you
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do need to give a guarantee to all
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americans that they can share as a
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community in the internet and they can
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get to the websites and to the content
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that they want to reach now that
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addresses the consumer accessing the
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internet
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behind the internet you have providers
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you know the netflix and others of the
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world who want sort of unrestricted
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access or they don't they don't want to
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be in a slow lane does the president's
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comments also affect that side of the
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internet also yes the president in
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effect is saying to the fcc
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suppose that the internet service
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provider cuts a sweetheart deal with
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some particular content company
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and the purpose of that deal is to
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exclude some competitor to that content
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company
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suppose that uh
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the internet service provider says i
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like nbc and abc but i don't i'm going
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to give them
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the ability to use the internet to
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broadcast their
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material not just over the year
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but i don't like the local broadcasters
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so much so i'm going to keep that person
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out of the package
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the president was saying you can't do
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that that's another way to discriminate
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against
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different content providers and i want
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everyone to have the chance to sell on
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the internet and everyone to have the
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chance to buy on the internet at the
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same speed always or he's saying roughly
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the act quality of the access needs to
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be approximately equal okay uh anything
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else that we that
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that we should learn from that statement
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what's likely to happen i know there's
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been it's been difficult for congress to
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come to any agreement on on any sort of
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rules and to give the fcc much direction
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there's been conflicting directions that
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have been trying to be there are five
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commissioners at the fcc uh three are
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democrats two are republicans
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i would imagine
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that the president doesn't expect the
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republican commissioners to agree with
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his position
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unfortunately as pretty much everyone in
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the united states knows the president
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has really had a hard time getting
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republicans in congress or at the fcc or
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in the senate to agree with him on any
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topic
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and i know that he's tried and he's
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tried and he's tried so the president
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then really needs the three democrats at
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the fcc
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to listen
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to
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pay attention to to inwardly digest and
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ultimately to decide to agree that the
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president is right i think that they
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will
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so um
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looking at the long game you think that
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this is a game changer moment
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i do i don't think it has tremendous uh
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economic significance for any of the
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content companies or any of the internet
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service providers
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they aren't right now basing their
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business plans on discrimination
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but you just want to be
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careful to make sure as a government
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that if somebody gets
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unchallenged to monopoly position in
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internet service or builds a tremendous
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vertical integration
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business where content and conduit are
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combined that you could step in and
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protect
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the little guy against the powerful and
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that's why it's right for the fcc to
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declare that it does have the
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jurisdiction
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to look out for everybody in the country
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if needed so it's providing
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a level or will provide if
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all is approved a level of certainty
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that's been missing this regulation that
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we're talking about is called title ii
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and some people will say to title two or
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not to title two that is the question
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i would say that really for the agency
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it is to be or not to be
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if you're an agency and you don't have a
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jurisdictional basis you don't have the
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legal authority to pass rules then
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you're out of business
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thanks very much
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you
