FCC Chairman Says Broadband Competition Is Lacking

The Federal Communications Commission's chairman says he believes there is not enough competition among the companies that provide high-speed Internet service to consumers.

The chairman, Tom Wheeler, wrote Tuesday in a post on the F.C.C. blog that even as he is working to ensure that the Internet remains open and freely accessible, 'there remains a shortfall in adequate broadband competition.' It appears to be the first time that Mr. Wheeler, who has said his mantra is 'competition, competition, competition,' has made that assessment.

On Wednesday, Mr. Wheeler is expected to give a vigorous defense of net neutrality when he speaks to the annual meeting of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, the cable and broadband industry's lobbying group. The address comes just two weeks before the F.C.C. will release for public comment a first draft of Mr. Wheeler's open Internet rules.

Since taking over as the chief of the regulatory agency on Nov. 4, Mr. Wheeler has spoken frequently about the need to promote competition in Internet services and among the companies that provide online content.

The tougher stance appears to be an effort by Mr. Wheeler to strike back at his critics, and it came as the F.C.C. faced vigorous criticism and lobbying over net neutrality and the effect that a merger between Comcast and Time Warner Cable would have on competition in the market for cable television and home broadband. Two aides to Mr. Wheeler could not provide another example of his speaking of insufficient competition.

Mr. Wheeler has also been broadly criticized over what many critics called his unwillingness to protect the right of consumers to an open Internet. The concept, also known as net neutrality, calls for giving consumers equal access to any legal content and preventing Internet service providers from favoring some content over others.

'If you read some of the press accounts about what we propose to do, those of you who oppose net neutrality might feel like a celebration was in order,' Mr. Wheeler is expected to say, according to excerpts from his remarks released by the F.C.C. on Tuesday.

'Reports that we are gutting the open Internet rules are incorrect,' he adds. 'I am here to say, 'Wait a minute.' Put away the party hats. The open Internet rules will be tough, enforceable, and, with the concurrence of my colleagues, in place with dispatch.'

The open Internet proposal follows a January decision by a federal appeals court that struck down the commission's previous open Internet rules, put in place under Mr. Wheeler's predecessor, Julius Genachowski.

Many consumer advocacy groups and liberal lobbying groups have pressured Mr. Wheeler by calling on President Obama to fulfill his campaign promise to uphold net neutrality. In 2007, in response to a question at a town-hall meeting sponsored by MTV, Mr. Obama said he was 'a strong supporter of net neutrality.'

'I want to maintain that basic principle in how the Internet functions,' Mr. Obama said. 'And so as president I am going to make sure that that is the principle that my F.C.C. commissioners are applying as we move forward.'

Mr. Wheeler has said that the rules will follow a 'road map' laid out by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which struck down the earlier rules but said that the commission might achieve some of the same results using a different legal justification.

'The focus of this proposal - on which we are seeking comment - is on maintaining a broadly available, fast and robust Internet as a platform for economic growth, innovation, competition, free expression, and broadband investment and deployment,' Mr. Wheeler is expected to say.

'Our goal is rules that will encourage broadband providers to continually upgrade service to all,' Mr. Wheeler is to continue. 'We will follow the court's blueprint for achieving this, and, I must warn you, will look skeptically on special exceptions.'

People who have been briefed on the chairman's proposal say that while he opposes the blocking of content by an Internet service provider, his new outline would allow broadband companies to offer some content providers a faster lane through which they can transmit video and services while avoiding network congestion, as long as they do not slow down other content to do so.

'There has been a great deal of talk about how our following the court's instruction to use a 'commercially reasonable' test could result in a so-called 'fast lane' and Internet haves and have-nots,' Mr. Wheeler says, according to the excerpts.

'Let me be clear,' he adds. 'If someone acts to divide the Internet between haves and have-nots, we will use every power at our disposal to stop it.' That includes the possibility of reclassifying broadband service so that it could be subject to the same strict regulation as utilities like electricity providers.

The rules will focus on whether a broadband company is providing a 'commercially reasonable' service. In his blog post, Mr. Wheeler specified behaviors that would fail, including degrading overall service to build a new 'fast lane' or to force consumers to buy a higher-price subscription.

Net neutrality has been an issue since at least 2002, when the F.C.C. classified broadband as an information service, subject only to light regulation. Also on Tuesday, Michael Powell, the chief of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, harshly warned against that possibility.

'It is the Internet's essential nature that fuels a very heated policy debate that the network cannot be left in private hands and should instead be regulated as a public utility, following the example of the interstate highway system, the electric grid and drinking water,' Mr. Powell said at the industry conference.

'These systems were built with the help of government, as was the Internet,' he said. 'But they have suffered terribly chronic underinvestment.'

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