On June 27, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued their staff report that summarizes their findings on a so called “net neutrality” regulation. The FTC recognized that the broadband connectivity industry is becoming more competitive and cautioned against imposing new regulations. According to the report, “the primary reason for caution is simply that we do not know what the net effects of potential conduct by broadband providers will be on all consumers, including, among other things, the prices that consumers may pay for Internet access, the quality of Internet access and other services that will be offered, and the choices of content and applications that may be available to consumers in the marketplace.”

This ruling made the broadband providers like AT&T, Time Warner Cable, and Verizon very happy. A tremendous amount of lobbying, television commercials and the like were traversing the wires to get their point across.

Content providers like Google, Yahoo!, and Amazon are probably going to react with skepticism about this ruling. Their fear is that somewhere down the road the broadband providers will put restrictions on the type of content traversing their networks.

We’ll all have to watch with cautious optimism to see if the resurrected Ma Bell (AT&T) and her cohorts will play nice.

FTC Press Release

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