CES 2010: FCC's Genachowski: Internet's 'Special Magic' Must Be Preserved
Chairman Notes Nation's 'Looming Crisis' In Ability To Secure Enough Wireless Spectrum
By Todd Spangler -- Multichannel News, 1/8/2010 4:59:56 PM
Las Vegas — Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski reiterated that the U.S. needs to "preserve a free and open Internet" with network neutrality rules, and he maintained that there is a "looming crisis" in the country's ability to secure enough wireless spectrum to meet demand.
Genachowski was interviewed by Consumer Electronics Association president and CEO Gary Shapiro at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show here Friday.
Earlier Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia grilled an FCC lawyer about the agency's 2008 decision to order Comcast to discontinue the practice of inhibiting the bandwidth used by peer-to-peer applications.
Shapiro kicked off the session by asking about the Comcast case. Genachowski demurred on commenting directly, but he said network neutrality regulations "are as important as ever."
"The goal of preserving the ‘special magic' of the Internet remains important... we have benefitted in this country enormously from this distribution mechanism that was open from the beginning," he said.
Genachowski has proposed codifying the FCC's Internet openness principles into enforceable rules, as well as adding regulations requiring nondiscrimination and public disclosure of network management practices. "The FCC is a backstop when there's conduct contrary to the goals we have for the Internet," he said.
Cable and telecommunications providers are opposed to network neutrality rules, but according to Genachowski the "goals are more broadly shared than people think" and he maintained that the creation of "sensible rules" is achievable.
Shapiro asked about the FCC's national broadband plan being due "next month," to which Genachowski responded, "Next month is March," eliciting chuckles in the crowd. On Thursday, Genachowski asked Congress to extend the previous deadline of Feb. 17 to March 17.
The chairman said the formulation of the broadband plan has been "an appropriately broad process," and said one of the main things the FCC is looking at is what barriers it can remove to promote competition.
Shapiro posed the question about whether the justification for the "heavy regulation" of broadcasters goes away, if the FCC achieves the goal of ubiquitous broadband. Genachowski didn't answer specifically, saying that exactly how regulations will evolve remains to be seen while he acknowledged that the goals of universal broadband change the equation.
Genachowski did note that broadcast TV remains an essential resource for many consumers: "Today there are still millions of Americans who get their video programming over the air, and that is an important reality that has to be taken into account in anything we do."
Meanwhile, Genachowski said the U.S. faces a serious spectrum gap and that the country in the future will run a real risk of demand outstripping spectrum capacity.
"The record is clear: We need to find more spectrum," he said. "One of the areas, not by choice, that I have to spend time on every day is spectrum scarcity. There's not enough spectrum available to do what we as a country need to do."
Shapiro asked about the FCC's mandates to provide access to cable programming through third-party devices, saying the CEA "has a 14-year history of frustration" on the issue. Genachowski said the FCC is looking for ways to foster innovation in the video sector, as witnessed by its inquiry into how the agency could promote the ability to access Internet video through set-tops.
"The Internet has produced millions of applications, mobile has perhaps 150,000 applications," he said. "If you look at the living room and the TV, the number is much, much lower."
Asked by Shapiro whether the fairness doctrine was dead, Genachowski confirmed: "The fairness doctrine is dead." The doctrine once required broadcasters to actively seek out opposing viewpoints on controversial issues of public importance but was abandoned by the FCC in 1987.
Genachowski, who bears more than a passing resemblance to the actor Matthew Broderick, was a classmate of President Barack Obama at Harvard Law School, and previously was the FCC's general counsel under then-chairman Reed Hunt. He was appointed FCC chairman by President Obama in March 2009.
Kevin Martin, Genachowski's predecessor, participated in the same interview-format discussion with Shapiro at CES for three years in a row.
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