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En Banc Hearing of the Federal communications commission,
Cambridge, Massachusetts, February 25, 2009
I want to thank everyone for coming today to make this a
productive and educational forum for the commission.
I'd like to begin by thanking our hosts, the Berkman center for
Internet & Society here atHaward Law School, including
Executive Director Pfofessor John palfrey, professor charlesNesson 
and yochai Benkler, among others.
And it is always a pleasure to hear from chairman Markey. I'd
also like to thank all of our distinguished panelists for joining us
today to discuss these issues which are impo rtantfor all consumers
as we evaluate the broadband marketplace.
rn2005, the commission adopted an Internet policy
Statement containing four principles.
To encourage broadband deployment and preserye and promote the
open and interconnected nafure of the public Internet, the
commission established the following principles :
o consumers ¿re entitled to access the lawful Internet
content of their choice:
o consumers are entitled to run applications and use
services of their choice, subject to the needs of law
enforcement:
o Consumers are entitled to connect their choice of legal
devices that do not harm the network;
. consumers ¿re entitled to competition among network
providers, application and service providers, and
content providers.
The adopted principles are subject to reasonable network
management.
The intent of these principles was to protect consumers,
access to the lawful online content of their choice.
The intent was also to foster the creation, adoption and use of
Internet broadband content, applications, and services.
The commission is the expert communications agency.
I believe that it is useful for us to examine the current practices and
developments in the broadband marketplace, like we are doing
here today.
The commission remains vigilant in protecting consumers'
access to content on the Internet.
Network operators claim they employ "reasonable network
management" in the operation of their broadband networks.
The question is: what are reasonable network practices?
Networks may have legitimate network management practices.
Obviously network operators can take reasonable steps to manage
traffrc, but they cannot arbitrarily block access.
This raises several issues in my mind.
First, its seems important that they do so in a reasonable, open, and
transparent way.
consumers need to know if and how network management
practices distinguish between different applications, so that
consumers can configure their own applications and systems
properly
And it means providing transparency to broadband consumers - in
the promises to deliver increased speeds, services, and pricing.
consumers have alleged that operators are blocking or
degrading consumers' access to the Internet by distinguiitring
between certain peer to peer applications.
Consumers have alleged that these operator practices have not
been transparent.
These are very significant issues.
The seriousness of it is one of the reasons we're holding this
hearing - to hear from all sides.
We have the dual responsibilities of creating an environment
that promotes infrastructure investment and broadband deployment
and to ensure that consumers' access to content on the Internet is
protected.
Hearing from experts today, as well as commenters in the
record, will allow us to better monitor this market and determine
the extent to which providers are actingconsistently with our
Internet Policy Statement.
The Commission is ready, willing, and able to step in if necessary.
We can best fulfill these responsibilities by being fulty informed.