EXECUTIVES CALL MOMENTOUS NEUTRALITY BATTLES POSSIBLE THIS YEAR

摘要

Steven Teplitz, Time Warner Cable senior vice president for government relations, predicted "a full-out brawl" this year over net neutrality if the FCC's ruling against Comcast's blocking of BitTorrent is overturned on appeal. That would raise the pressure for federal neutrality legislation, he said at a seminar on Legal Affairs in Digital Media at Stanford University. It could also lead to a commission proceeding to expressly make its Internet principles enforceable, Teplitz said. The neutrality discussion opens an even more profound discussion of whether operators of broadband networks are common carriers with unbundling obligations, said Sandy Wilson, Cox vice president of public policy and regulatory affairs. Free Press asked the commission last week to reclassify broadband as a telecommunications service. The neutrality discussion also calls for deciding whether nondiscrimination duties concern the treatment of customers or of content owners, Wilson said. The debate creates a "growing need" for policymakers to have technically expert advice, she said