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from: ComputerWorld

FCC boss: We can throw away the AT&T net neutrality agreement

By Preston Gralla on Thu, 01/04/2007 - 2:34pm

The groundbreaking AT&T pledge to agree to net neutrality provisions in return for being allowed to buy out BellSouth carries absolutely no weight with FCC honcho Kevin Martin. In fact, Martin has said that the FCC "will oppose such policies going forward."

Last week, AT&T agreed to a variety of net neutrality provisions as a way to get Democratic FCC commissioners to allow it to buy BellSouth. Without those commissioners' votes, the FCC was deadlocked.

A variety of consumer groups hailed the agreement, and said that it could even serve as a blueprint for future net neutrality provisions.

But FCC boss Kevin Martin and fellow Republican commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate immediately squashed that idea. In a statement, they made clear that they believe the agreement was a bad one, and they'll do their best to fight net neutrality.

Their statement claims that the net neutrality provisions "are discriminatory, and run contrary to Commission policy and precedent."

The statement goes on to say, "while the Democrat Commissioners may have extracted concessions from AT&T, they in no way bind future Commission action...To the extent Commission action is required to effectuate these conditions as a policy going forward, we specifically do not support those aspects of the conditions and will oppose such policies going forward.

"For example, today's order does not mean that the Commision has adopted an additional net neutrality principle... although AT&T may make a voluntary business decision, it cannot dictate or bind government policy."

In other words, from Martin's point of view, nothing has changed. And his statement seems to imply that AT&T could back out of its promises and the FCC would take no action against it.

But there's one thing that Martin has overlooked: The Democratic Congress may pass legislation ensuring net neutrality. And then, whether he likes it or not, it will be the law of the land.