The National Cable & Telecommunications Association says that classifying Internet access under Title II, as some network neutrality backers are loudly calling for, would be ditching 15 years of private sector-fueled growth and threatening continued deployment.
In an unsigned blog posting, but one echoing points made pointedly by NCTA President Michael Powell, NCTA said that classifying ISPS as common carriers would be a terrible mistake, would completely dismantle broadband deployment, and could lead to the broadband equivalent of the kind of potholes, water main breaks and blackouts that typify the nation's "crumbling" utilities.
By contrast, it said, "Today’s Internet does not depend on the political process for its growth. And it does not suffer when we experience extended droughts of public funding that can last for years."
NCTA pulled no punches with those calling for Title II classification.
"In recent weeks, as the FCC prepares to take comment on new Open Internet rules to replace those struck down by the courts, D.C. has borne witness to a steady drumbeat of misinformation and scare tactics designed to bully regulators into adopting a radical and unwarranted shift in Internet regulation," NCTA said.
It called that discussion increasingly "nasty, personal and irrational."
