Cable companies are pulling together in response to President Obama’s “stunning” Net Neutrality stance.
The president recently called for much greater government regulation on the internet as a common “utility”.
Fred Campbell, former head of wireless communications at the FCC and now executive director of free market tech group Center for Boundless Innovation in Technology, weighed in. He said that applying extremes like Title II to the internet would create “legal uncertainty at home and encourage the efforts of totalitarian regimes abroad to tighten their control over the internet – the 21st Century’s mass media communications system.”
RT @SteveForbesCEO: Obama's bad decision on #netneutrality is already negatively affecting investment, #jobs https://t.co/QLqA4wNfo9
— Peter Kinder (@PeterKinder) November 12, 2014
Ted Cruz raised eyebrows when he posted this to Twitter shortly following the president’s remarks:
"Net Neutrality" is Obamacare for the Internet; the Internet should not operate at the speed of government.
— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) November 10, 2014
The National Cable and Telecommunications Association, which represents cable companies including Comcast and Time Warner, said it was “stunned” by the president’s remarks.
“The cable industry strongly supports an open internet, is building an open internet, and strongly believes that over-regulating the fastest growing technology in our history will not advance the cause of internet freedom,” said NCTA president Michael Powell. He is also the former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
AT&T to halt investment in fiber optic lines because of net neutrality http://t.co/IMkFf8HSw4
— Raw Story (@RawStory) November 12, 2014
Powell added, “We are stunned the president would abandon the longstanding, bipartisan policy of lightly regulating the internet and [call] for extreme Title II regulation,”
Lobby group Broadband for America said that Obama’s endorsement “of 1930’s era Title II classification would lead to unprecedented government interference in the internet, and would hurt consumers and innovation.”
What do you think of Obama’s recent statements? Do you agree with the “stunned” cable companies or Obama himself?