October 21, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Tracy Rosenberg (510) 684-6853

Huge Outpouring of Support for Net Neutrality: Federal Communications Commission to Issue Notice of Proposed Rulemaking Today

After years of discussion and public statements of support from over 1.6 million Americans and 850 public and private organizations, the Federal Communications Commission, acting on the call to action by new Chairman Julius Genachowski on September 21st, is poised to go ahead with basic net neutrality regulations to assure an open and unfettered Internet future.

Anchored by the committed Genachowski and long-time supporter Michael Copps, the decisive and much needed action hinges on the support of two newly appointed commissioners to the FCC, Democrat Mignon Clyburn and Republican Meredith Atwell Baker.

Active lobbying by big telecom providers like Verizon and AT&T, who provide significant financial support to many members of Congress has resulted in some expressions of concern from legislators, and according to advocacy group Free Press, AT&T instructed employees to post anti-neutrality comments on an FCC bulletin board using their *private e-mail accounts*.

"Net Neutrality", a term coined by Columbia Law School professor Tim Wu, refers to regulations that ensure the equal and neutral treatment of all forms of data streams, applications and users on the Internet.

The past few years have seen some well-publicized incidents of anti-neutral acts by telecom providers, including throttling of music sharing applications by Comcast (which resulted in an FCC investigation held at the Stanford campus in April of 2008), the non-delivery of text messages sent by the National Abortion Rights Action League by Verizon and censorship of a Pearl Jam concert webcast by AT&T.

Net neutrality regulations would also hold at bay potential pricing schemes referred to as pay-to-play, which could create fast and slow lanes on the Internet for web pages, greatly crippling nonprofit organizations, independent artists and others who wouldn't have the financial resources to pay for "fast delivery" of their websites to Internet users.

Media Alliance joined the many public interest organizations writing to the FCC on October 21st encouraging the commissioners to stand firm in the face of pressure and proceed with the Chairman's plan for protecting openness, accessibility and fairness for US Internet users.

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