Cisco Chairman John Chambers has told FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler the company "strongly supports" his approach to reinstating open Internet rules.
"Your approach of applying a ‘commercially reasonable’ test to new offerings by Internet service providers allows innovative new products and services to develop, while at the same time protecting consumers and competition," he said in a letter to the FCC chairman dated May 13.
By contrast, he said, Cisco was "deeply troubled" by proposals to impose what he called "old fashioned telephone regulations of Title II" to broadband Internet access.
ISPs have said that Title II will discourage investment in broadband deployment, the kind of deployment Cisco's systems help power. Chambers echoed that sentiment, and put an exclamation point on it.
"I am passionate about this issue because it is crucial to the future of the Internet," he said. "Will we have rules that only seek to protect innovation on the edge of the network by imposing onerous regulation on the core of the network? Or will we take a balanced approach that encourages innovation everywhere in the Internet ecosystem while protecting consumers and competition? I strongly urge the FCC to take the balanced approach as it deliberates on this important proceeding."
