Phone, Cable Giants Turn Up Volume in Broadband Fight
Practically every major cable television and phone company has signed on to a new coalition, Broadband for America. The plan: air radio and TV ads in Washington this weekend aimed at influencing the FCC’s upcoming plan for increasing broadband access across the U.S.
The coalition’s Web site www.broadbandforamerica.com, which opened for business Thursday, has some of the TV ads that will begin airing in the D.C. media market. Its members total nearly 100, and include Verizon Communications, AT&T Inc., Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications, Comcast Corp., Cisco Systems Inc., Motorola Inc. and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
The FCC, under Chairman Julius Genachowski, is focused on producing a national broadband plan, due in February, which would essentially be a blueprint for new regulations or other efforts to increase broadband availability and usage across the U.S. It’s not clear yet where the FCC is heading with all of this, but phone and cable companies would prefer the agency stay away from new regulations over their broadband lines.
Coalition’s goal is “to be a resource for policy-makers in an effort to ensure that the national broadband plan results in a faster, smarter and safer Internet,” said Phil Singer, a spokesman for the group.
Missing from the coalition: public interest groups who regularly fight Internet providers on issues like setting a higher bar for broadband speeds or new net neutrality rules designed to prevent companies from discriminating against some Internet traffic.
“It’s obvious that the industry must have way too much money if they can undertake another Astroturf lobbying effort,” said Art Brodsky, a spokesman for Public Knowledge, a digital rights interest group that routinely fights with cable and phone companies on various issues.
Not so, said Singer, who said the group was focused on “heightening public awareness about broadband” and noted that all of the group’s members are posted on its Web site.
