All week long MSO executives at The Cable Show, as if rehearsed, called for a dialog with the FCC over proposed Internet regulation. "We remain willing to work with them," said Glenn Britt, chairman, president and CEO of Time Warner Cable, echoing the industry mantra.
Yesterday, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski outlined how that would work out. "What our staff has developed is a narrow and legal approach that has barriers against regulatory creep," he said, promising to run "a Commission that operates differently than it has with the ‘most open and transparent FCC ever.'"
Genachowski also addressed the industry's prime complaint that Google, not consumers, is driving the demand for Internet regulation. "This issue isn't about Google. This is about the next Google, the next eBay, the next Amazon," he said.
At the same time Genachowski was laying down his principles, a U.S. Congressman offered the industry another way to deal with net neutrality. "If broadband providers differ with the approach that the FCC has taken ... our door is open," said Rep. Rick Boucher of Virginia, chairman of the telecommunications and Internet subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. "We would be pleased to discuss with broadband providers, and with the proponents of network neutrality, the creation of a targeted set of principles to ensure network openness."
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