The report, entitled “Broadband Connectivity Competition Policy,” is the result of the agency’s two-day public workshop held in February 2007 on broadband competition issues.
“This report recommends that policy makers proceed with caution in the evolving, dynamic industry of broadband Internet access, which generally is moving toward more — not less — competition,” Platt Majoras said. “In the absence of significant market failure or demonstrated consumer harm, policy makers should be particularly hesitant to enact new regulation in this area.”
The Save the Internet coalition disagrees with Platt Majoras, saying the report “includes no empirical research on competition in the local broadband market. It simply takes the incumbents at their word that the U.S. broadband marketplace is competitive — even though most U.S. consumers have at best two choices for broadband at home.”
The crux of the debate surrounding net neutrality is the principle that broadband providers should not be able to discriminate against certain websites, content delivery or ISPs. Some network operators argue they should be able to charge extra for bandwidth hogging downloads and other special services.
Many critics see the FTC’s report as siding with the big telecoms.
“The Federal Trade Commission report confirms that there is no problem to fix,” Verizon executive VP Tom Tauke said. “Proposals to impose new regulation actually threaten further advancements in broadband Internet conections. That hurts consumers by denying them new and better services.”