Michael Copps of the FCC has two messages: All is not well in Washington, and we “need to do a lot more about that.”

Access to the Internet could reasonably be considered a civil right, he says. The Net is crucial, yet the US is falling in terms of per capita access to broadband. And the FCC counts 200kb as broadband. And if there’s a single person with broadband in a zip code, the FCC counts the entire zip code as having access to broadband. He says we’re the only industrialized country that has no national strategy for getting the country connected. He suggests that other countries have better competition policies or incentives.

“Let’s get the facts, do the research, do the analysis, consider our options” and implement.

“Decentralized end user control is increasingly at risk.” “The concentrated providers have the ability to build networks with traffic policies that restrict how you and I use the Internet.” Although they say they’re not going to do that, but history shows that concerns with the ability and the incentive frequently give it a try, he says.

What’s the FCC doing about it? Mixed bag. The FCC has reclassified broadband to information services, not telecommunications. Telecom is supposed to be non-discriminatory, but not info services. Thanks to Copps, the FCC issued a four-point statement of principles for Net users: You can see what you want, use the devices you want, etc. [Yeah, but the new commissioner added footnotes vitiating them. See Isenberg on this.] The providers would invert the architecture, making a smart pipe for dumb users, rather than keeping the architecture open and dumb so smart users can innovate.

Copps talks about the FCC’s current deliberations about allowing yet more media consolidation. He wants the deliberations to be opened. The Internet will not halt media consolidation, he says, because it could be heading down the very same road. “The only way you win is to make sure it’s not a business as usual process.” We should take our story not only to capitol hill but all across America.

I ask him about partnerships and alliances we haven’t formed that we should. He responds by talking about coming up with ways of talking about the issue that shows the importance of the issue to all Americans.

(I interviewed Commissioner Copps; it’ll be posted on the Supernova vlog site tonight or tomorrow.) [Tags: michael_copps fcc net_neutrality digital_rights supernova ]

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