On May 15, MultiChannel News reported: “The Michigan House of Representatives has adopted a resolution asking the FCC not to reclassify broadband as a Title II service. The resolution was introduced May 14 by Rep. Jeff Mayes and had more than 60 cosponsors from both parties. It has no force of law, but it was forceful in its language opposing Federal Communications Commission chairman Julius Genachowski's plan to apply a handful of Title II common carrier regulations to the transmission component of the Internet.”
The Michigan House Concurrent Resolution No. 57 declared the following:
Whereas, Due in large part to the unregulated efforts of private enterprise over the past 25 years, the development of the Internet has dramatically transformed the way Michigan citizens work, live and learn. The deployment of efficient, fast, and reliable broadband networks through-out Michigan has created thousands of jobs and economic benefits for local economies; and
Whereas, In order to encourage the growth and development of the Internet, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has historically followed a policy to refrain from regulating broadband Internet services as common carrier services under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934. As a result, the United States has been at the forefront of technological, business, and social innovation on the Internet; and
Whereas, On May 6, 2010, the Chairman of the FCC announced a policy to reclassify broadband Internet services as common carrier services so that they can be more tightly regulated, with a proposal to forbear from imposing certain common carrier obligations on broadband Internet providers; and
Whereas, It is the judgment of the Michigan House of Representatives that using monopoly- era provisions of Title II of the Communications Act of 1934 to regulate the Internet will slow investment in Michigan's Internet broadband infrastructure and jeopardize future job growth; now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That we memorialize the President, the Congress, and the Federal Communications Commission of the United States to refrain from regulating Internet broadband services as common carrier services under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934…
The Michigan resolution is absolutely correct in critical areas. First, the private sector has driven Internet development that has transformed the way we live, work and do business. Second, broadband investment and innovation have provided a major boost to our economy and job creation. Third, the FCC refraining from regulating broadband Internet service as common carrier services under the Communications Act of 1934 has encouraged investment, innovation and development of the Internet. And fourth, imposing such broadband regulation, as called for by the FCC, would place broadband investment and related future job growth in real peril.
In fact, the only point that the Michigan resolution failed to mention specifically is how critical continued broadband investment and innovation is particularly to entrepreneurship and small business. Efficient, fast and reliable broadband networks have empowered the entrepreneurial sector in ways previously unimagined. Increased and misguided regulation – such as dictating pricing and operational models as proposed by the FCC – would inflict serious harm on entrepreneurs, small businesses and, therefore, the entire U.S. economy.
Raymond J. Keating
Chief Economist
Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council
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