AT&T: Third Way Is 'Road To Ruin'

In reply comments submitted to the FCC Thursday, AT&T told the commission that its proposal to reclassify broadband transmissions as a telecommunications service subject to some Title II common carrier regs--FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski's so-called "third way" proposal" -- would be a "road to ruin" based on "incontrovertible" evidence in the public record.

Not mincing any words, the phone company told the FCC that its plan would deliver none of the benefits touted by the chairman, would not stand up in court, would thwart the Obama administration's broadband agenda, would "abandon" light-touch regulation, widen the digital divide, and would hurt job growth, investment, and the chairman's much-vaunted "innovation."

And, speaking from experience, AT&T said: "Whether or not accompanied by partial regulatory forbearance, reclassification would, for the first time ever, saddle the broadband industry with regulation originally developed for telephone monopolists seventy-five years ago."

AT&T dismissed Title II supporters like Free Press and Public Knowledge as "inside-the-beltway" interest groups that have never run a big business and are oblivious to the costs and implications of reclassification.

The company warned that reclassifying broadband could encourage state governments to step in, arguing that states have been much more active in regulating services categorized as telecommunications rather than information. "[T]hey have displayed a strong appetite for regulation of any service whenever the Commission has not explicitly preempted their authority," it said, citing fixed VoIP service.