When it comes to net neutrality, few people, companies or government agencies are lukewarm in their feelings about how Internet traffic should be regulated.
As Enterprise Networking Planet reports, a quartet of Democrats led by Ed Markey of Massachusetts wrote a scathing letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, urging him to move forward and enact the proposed net neutrality regulations it has proffered and ignore the suggested compromise offered by Google and Verizon.
Markey and the other Democrats make it clear that the mere fact that the two companies with perhaps the most to gain from the Internet and wireless communication are trying to artificially influence the FCC is reason enough to throw out the baby with the bathwater.
Markey’s letter comes as the most public congressional reaction to date to the companies’ proposal, which had outlined a compromise framework for legislation to authorize the FCC to enact a rule prohibiting wired Internet service providers from discriminating against certain types of traffic on their networks, but stopped short of calling for a similar rule for wireless networks.
As Google and Verizon make the rounds on Capitol Hill looking for support for their net neutrality compromise, they can expect a cold shoulder from Rep. Ed Markey.
Markey (D-Mass.), along with three other House Democrats, penned a sharply worded letter (PDF available here) to Julius Genachowski, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, urging him to move ahead with a controversial plan to enact binding net neutrality regulations and ignore Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Verizon’s (NYSE: VZ) proposal.
“The recent proposal by Google and Verizon of an industry-centered net neutrality policy framework reinforces the need for resolution of the current open proceedings at the commission to ensure the maintenance of an open Internet,” the lawmakers wrote. “Rather than expansion upon a proposal by two large communications companies with a vested financial interest in the outcome, formal FCC action is needed.”
