The Federal Communications Commission is reportedly holding closed-door meetings with phone and cable companies in the hopes of coming to some sort of arrangement on how the agency regulates broadband Internet service.
FCC staffers are meeting with lobbyists from AT&T, Verizon, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, and Internet companies like Google and Skype, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The move comes several days after the FCC opened a public comment period on how it should proceed regarding broadband Internet regulation. The commission has proposed a so-called “third way,” which would narrowly reclassify the transmission of data as a telecommunications service that the agency could directly regulate, balanced by a hands-off approach to other aspects.
Broadband providers were not exactly thrilled with the idea.
As a result, Monday’s meeting included a discussion about how the FCC could avoid fundamental changes to its Internet regulation rules, but still be able to enforce “net neutrality” rules, the Journal said. They are expected to meet again on Tuesday.
Consumer group Free Press was not pleased.
“It is stunning that the FCC would convene meetings between industry giants to allow them determine how the agency should best protect the public interest,” Free Press president and CEO Josh Silver said in a statement. “The Obama administration promised a new era of transparency, and to ‘take a backseat to no one’ on net neutrality, but these meetings seem to indicate that this FCC has no problem brokering backroom deals without any public input or scrutiny.”
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