Comcast: We Look Forward To Working With FCC On Net Neutrality

Moments after Thursday's 3-2 vote by the FCC to move forward on revising its net netruality rules, Comcast Executive Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer David L. Ochen released this statment:

Today, the FCC voted to take the first step in what will be a months long comment and review process to establish strong, legally enforceable Open Internet rules.  As Commissioners noted, this Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) is just an initial step to examine what the rules should ultimately be, and there will be significant time to study the NPRM, and for public input and comment before the final rules are voted on by the Commission later this year.
 
Comcast remains committed to a free and open Internet and working with the FCC on appropriate rules for all players across the industry.  Currently, Comcast is the only company in America that is legally bound by the FCC’s now vacated Open Internet rules.  And we’ve promised to extend the Open Internet rules to millions of new customers in cities from New York to Los Angeles through our transaction with Time Warner Cable.
 
A free and open Internet stimulates competition, promotes innovation, fosters job creation, and drives business.  We supported the FCC’s 2010 Open Internet rules because they struck the appropriate balance between consumer protection and reasonable network management rights for ISPs.  Our customers want a secure and open Internet, we are committed to delivering on our promise to ensure that experience, and we are comfortable supporting appropriate, legally enforceable open Internet rules.
 
We remain confident that the Commission will continue to appropriately balance its strong commitment to consumer protection with the need to allow network operators to manage their networks reasonably and to continue to encourage private investment in our nation’s broadband infrastructure.   As strongly as we believe in the propriety of legally enforceable open Internet rules, however, we have an equally strong belief that any proposal to reclassify broadband Internet access as a telecommunications service subject to Title II of the Communications Act would spark massive instability, create investor and marketplace uncertainty, derail planned investments, slow broadband adoption, and kill jobs in America.
 
For over a decade, Commissions and Administrations led by both parties have consistently ruled that common carrier regulation does not (and should not) apply to the broadband Internet industry.  As a result, cable operators and other Internet service providers have invested hundreds of billions of dollars to deploy increasingly robust broadband networks, laying the groundwork for an explosion of innovation in the Internet ecosystem, and fostering the creation of millions of jobs.  Any effort to upend this legal framework would most certainly be subject to years of litigation with uncertain outcomes that would risk decreased investment and derail the American economic success story.
 
We look forward to working with Chairman Wheeler and the Commissioners to play a constructive role in finding an appropriate regulatory balance going forward that will ensure the Internet remains vibrant and open for all Americans.