Mobile products helped spur the proposed Communications Act rewrite
Arguing that new mobile technology has made small changes no longer possible, key Congressional Democrats announced a plan yesterday to review and revise the Telecommunications Act with an eye to regulating mobile and broadband technologies.
Senate Commerce Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), Senate Commerce Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Kerry (D-MA), House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA), and House Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher (D-VA) announced Monday that the rewrite would be in stages over the next few years, with incremental bills being introduced and presumably passed before work on the next. The first bill would be Boucher’s internet privacy bill, a draft of which his office has circulated for comment.
“The world has changed dramatically. Telecommunications have been transformed. The Internet is now the focal point for communications of all kind,” said the Congressman in an interview with CongressDaily.
The effort comes after a federal appeals court ruled that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) did not have sweeping authority to regulate broadband networks. The FCC has sought to implement a new national broadband plan and expand network neutrality guidelines. The four Congressional sponsors’ legislation will ultimately look to regulate services (e.g. broadband) rather than industries, said Boucher.
