ITIF recently submitted comments to the FCC on the Petition for Declaratory Ruling Regarding Internet Management Policies. In its commentary, ITIF states that universal access to broadband is an important goal and that users have the right to access lawful Internet content. Yet, even with aggressive deployment of higher speed networks, bandwidth will continue to be scarce for the foreseeable future. As a result, ISPs should have the right to reasonably manage their networks to ensure a fair and efficient distribution of bandwidth among their subscribers.
As long as ISPs’ network management policies are transparent, fair, and their express purpose is to address the impact of certain data-intensive traffic on the network, they are in accordance with the FCC’s Internet access principles. The notion that broadband networks are in some way fundamentally different than other networks and should deal with capacity limitations only through network expansion is not supported by either logic or the long evidence from other network infrastructures.
