[CNET] The FCC has said it wants to protect an open Internet, but its actions extend well beyond Net neutrality. Instead, it is ushering in a backward-looking regulatory regime that is unsuited to the dynamic and innovative Internet. Thursday's vote will allow the FCC to regulate rates, set terms and conditions of business relationships, and dramatically increase the cost of network deployment. It also gives state and federal governments new opportunities to impose taxes and fees on consumer bills.What will this mean for American consumers? In the short term, the Internet will not work differently. We will continue to enjoy the same open Internet experience that we do today. But the price we will pay over time for this radical shift in regulation will be severe. Consumers are likely to see higher bills from new taxes and fees and expenses related to regulatory compliance, along with a host of unintended consequences. They will wait longer to receive faster next-generation services. Internet providers, which spend massive capital to dig up streets, hang wires and connect homes, will see this intense chain of activity subjected to regulatory second-guessing that will slow the dynamic improvements we all desire. And garage startups, which today assert with confidence that the new regulation doesn't apply to them, will soon find themselves caught in the government's ever-expanding web.
Internet evangelists frequently promote the virtues of innovation without permission. We now move to a world that turns that on its head. Networks may be less exciting than new software apps, but they too require innovation, evolution and revolution. That process now is subject to constant bureaucratic review, political considerations, and collateral attack by competitors.
No worries, it's all part of our fake interceptor towers program. When you need to know more, we'll tell you.
The FCC is attempting to sell its action out of both sides of its mouth. To one audience it brags it is adopting the strongest rules possible, while simultaneously trying to assure others its plan is a light-touch, modern regime with no government entanglement in the market. It is dream-weaving to suggest that a regulatory agency, having built a new regulatory platform, will not expand its intervention with time. It always happens.
