December 31, 2014

Newsmakers Aug. 8-21: Area voice strong for net neutrality

The fierce debate over net neutrality hasn’t occurred without plenty of input from Coloradans.

A BizWest report in August revealed that one comment has been filed with the Federal Communications Commission on the issue from residents in Fort Collins, Boulder, Greeley, Longmont, Loveland and Broomfield for every 192 residents in those communities.

In Boulder, that figure was one comment for every 82 residents, compared to Denver where it was one for every 235, San Francisco where it was one for every 132 and nationally where it was one for every 286.

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And almost all of the comments are from people favoring rules that would prevent Internet service providers from charging content providers for so-called fast lanes to ensure their traffic arrives to consumers more efficiently. Essentially, network neutrality is the idea that all Internet traffic should be treated equally.

And it hasn’t just been residents speaking out on the issue locally. Broomfield-based Level 3 Communications Inc., one of the nation’s largest Internet backbone providers, has long been a major force in the debate in Washington.

The outspokenness on the issue locally is perhaps driven by the thriving startup economies in Boulder County and Fort Collins. The tech community, from large companies like Google to small startups, has been a major net neutrality advocate, arguing that an open Internet is essential to the success of innovation.

The deluge of comments to the FCC stemmed from a new set of proposed rules in May that would allow ISPs to arrange some “commercially reasonable” deals in which content providers could pay ISPs for preferential treatment of their traffic. Those proposed rules had come in the wake of a U.S. Court of Appeals decision in January striking down the FCC’s rules on net neutrality from 2010, stating that the FCC overstepped its authority in barring ISPs from slowing selected web traffic.

UPDATE

The FCC has since worked to craft a set of rules that is addresses the desires of net neutrality advocates and has the ability to stand up in court.

In October, the New York Times reported that FCC staff were moving toward a sort of hybrid solution in which utility-like regulations would be imposed on the exchange of data from content providers to ISPs but where a “lighter regulatory touch” would be given to the transmission of data from ISPs to the consumers.

A couple of weeks later, President Obama urged the FCC to adopt strict net neutrality rules and regulate the Internet like utilities such as telephone and electric service.

The fierce debate over net neutrality hasn’t occurred without plenty of input from Coloradans.

A BizWest report in August revealed that one comment has been filed with the Federal Communications Commission on the issue from residents in Fort Collins, Boulder, Greeley, Longmont, Loveland and Broomfield for every 192 residents in those communities.

In Boulder, that figure was one comment for every 82 residents, compared to Denver where it was one for every 235, San Francisco where it was one for every 132 and nationally where it was…

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