About Scott Cleland
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You are hereRegulationWhy Verizon Wins Appeal of FCC's Net RegsSubmitted by Scott Cleland on Thu, 2011-01-20 17:54Top Ten: Verizon is highly likely to win its appeal of the FCC's December Open Internet order, because the FCC's order is likely to deeply and broadly offend the legal sensibilities of the Appeals Court, just like the FCC offended the DC Appeals Court's sensibilities when it punished Comcast for violating a regulation that did not exist.
To understand the most likely outcome here, it is critical to cut through the FCC's claims, assertions, and arguments, and focus on the big picture context of what the FCC is actually doing in this Open Internet Order, i.e. what is the effect of the FCC's decision and process on the rule of law. That is what matters most to the Court. Why FCC's Net Regs Need Administration/Congressional Regulatory ReviewSubmitted by Scott Cleland on Mon, 2011-01-03 12:02To promote "America's free market," President Obama today ordered a government-wide review of regulations that "make our economy less competitive," in order to take us "toward a 21st century regulatory system." Here is the case for why the FCC's December Open Internet order deserves to be atop of the Administration's regulations to review for abolition.
First, the FCC's new Internet regulations violate the President's goal of a "21st century regulatory system" by applying "outdated" 19th century common carrier regulatory thinking and approaches to the previously un-regulated, and flourishing 21st century Internet. (Para 68) Second, the FCC rules violate the President's goal of avoiding "excessive, inconsistent, and redundant regulation."
FCC Open Internet Decision Take-awaysSubmitted by Scott Cleland on Tue, 2010-12-21 20:26The FCC's 3-2 vote on its Open Internet order produces several big takeaways, despite there being no actual order to review. Take-aways: First, the controversy over net neutrality isn't going away; it is on path to get more controversial. The FCC signaled this was only the beginning of a broader FCC net neutrality rule making process.
FCC Internet Price Regulation & Micro-management?Submitted by Scott Cleland on Mon, 2010-12-20 11:22If David Hatch's National Journal "exclusive" report is accurate, that the FCC's proposed Open Internet order is being changed to become much more regulatory in: "addressing concerns about wireless carriers, limiting Internet toll lanes, and adding protections for a new online pricing model" -- the FCC would be hurtling itself headlong down the very slippery slope of highly-destructive FCC Internet price regulation and micro-management. The huge folly of this trajectory is that its hard enough trying to write an enforcement solution to a non-existent problem, it is mind-numbingly difficult to imagine that the FCC can economically price regulate and micro-manage the international Internet ecosystem. If this is the direction the FCC is headed, it is the ultimate in regulatory hubris. Not only does the FCC have no legitimate justification, rationale, authority, or consensus to micro-manage the Internet with unprecedented price regulation, the FCC has no proven regulatory competence, business expertise, or analysis on how to achieve this equivalent of doing brain surgery in mittens on a roller coaster in the dark. Will FCC Preserve or Change the Internet?Submitted by Scott Cleland on Fri, 2010-12-17 13:11The crux of the FCC's non-transparent proposed Open Internet Order will be whether it envisions: a very limited Internet enforcement role for the FCC, or an expansive economic regulation and Internet management role for the FCC.
The real test of whether the FCC is limited or expansive will be whether the word "preserve" is used forthrightly in the actual text of the FCC Open Internet order: i.e. will it respect or abandon Congress' meaning of "preserve" in section 230: "to preserve the... competitive free market... Internet... unfettered by Federal or State regulation."
The De-Competition RevolutionSubmitted by Scott Cleland on Tue, 2010-12-14 13:15As an unapologetic proponent of competition over regulation, its disturbing to witness the de-facto de-competition revolution in Internet policy unfolding, where "net neutrality" and "openness" are overthrowing competition as both the central goal and primary means of implementing U.S. Internet policy.
De-Competition Policy Developments First, reports indicate that the FCC plans to use 1992 monopoly Cable Act law for ancillary legal authority to justify regulating the Internet with Net neutrality. This is wrong-headed for many reasons. Paid Prioritization: The Demonization of Market EconomicsSubmitted by Scott Cleland on Mon, 2010-12-13 12:11Now we know what "real net neutrality" and "openness" are, and that they are the antithesis of free market economics or competition. As the FreePress-led letter to the FCC made clear on Friday: "Paid prioritization is the antithesis of openness. Any framework that does not prohibit such economic discrimination arrangements is not real net neutrality." What is "paid prioritization?"
Remember FreePress' last Uneconomics 101 lesson was that "above-cost pricing" was an "unfair business practice." Sinking Level 3 Seeking FCC Internet Regulation BailoutSubmitted by Scott Cleland on Wed, 2010-12-08 14:31The extent to which Level 3's business is underwater is the untold story behind Level 3's regulatory "hail Mary" claim that its Internet peering dispute with Comcast is somehow a net neutrality violation.
Why is Level 3 seeking a de facto Internet regulation bailout from the FCC? First, Level 3 is a financially-sinking business with no legitimate growth prospects. FreePress to FCC: Ignore Congress/Courts, Use 1910 as GuideSubmitted by Scott Cleland on Mon, 2010-11-22 16:54Only FreePress would hold a press conference to release essentially a longer-version of its previously-debunked legal analysis calling for the FCC to regulate competitive broadband providers as Title II telephone public utilities. The essence of the call, which made no news, was FreePress reiterated that the FCC should ignore:
For anyone that wants to examine in depth why FreePress' legal and policy analysis remains fatally-flawed and would cause an unmitigated disaster click: HERE... The FCC's Positive Policy Pivot?Submitted by Scott Cleland on Tue, 2010-11-16 20:30FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski signaled a major FCC policy pivot Monday, from a fourteen-month focus on regulating net neutrality to apparently a new singular focus on "the economy and jobs" -- in his annual speech before NARUC, the association of state utility regulators.
Takeaways from the FCC Chairman's speech. First, this is a very significant speech to pay attention to, because the FCC is laying out what the states can expect from the FCC in the year ahead. Pages |