FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 22, 2007

Contact: Timothy Lee

703.535.5836

ALEXANDRIA, VA — The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) today announced that it will undertake a Notice of Inquiry (NOI) regarding so-called "Net Neutrality" regulations.  The Center for Individual Freedom, a constitutional and free market advocacy organization opposed to over-burdensome government regulation, hailed the Commission's inquiry as a positive step that will help to clear the air of the politics and misinformation currently dominating the debate.

"The current 'Net Neutrality' debate in Congress and in some state legislatures across the country has unfortunately been driven by politicized fiction and misinformed hysteria," said Timothy Lee, CFIF's Director of Legal and Public Affairs.  "We applaud the FCC for undertaking its Notice of Inquiry, which will open the process and bring much-needed hard facts to the 'Net Neutrality' debate.

"With its inquiry, the FCC can now take a lead role in de-politicizing the issue, bringing honest conversation and answering the question of whether government regulation of the Internet is even necessary," Lee said.  "The Notice of Inquiry will provide a forum to collect facts and define the real and serious issues at stake in this debate.  And it is our hope that this process will finally demonstrate that 'Net Neutrality' legislation would only cripple Internet innovation."

Unlike any other medium the world has ever seen, the Internet has exploded as a tool for expanded commerce and the free-flow of ideas.  But CFIF argues that the Internet has a long way to go before it reaches its full potential. 

"New Internet-based technologies are dependent on private investment to deploy high-speed networks," Lee said.  He pointed to the fact that single websites like YouTube create as much online traffic as the entire Internet did in the late 1990s.  Traffic requiring high speed infrastructure will only increase as companies like Netflix and Blockbuster move to online delivery services.  

"The Internet has flourished precisely because government has refrained from regulating or taxing it," Lee continued.  "Simply put, so-called 'Net Neutrality" amounts to nothing more than the government mandating business models and price controls on network providers.  Under this scenario, broadband providers will lose the incentive to create new products and services for their subscribers as there will be no way for them to recoup the hundreds of millions of dollars they are poised to commit toward building much-needed high-speed networks. Lack of innovation would in turn hurt consumers, because what is now an ever-evolving Internet would stagnate in its development." 

"In addition to stifling innovation, Net Neutrality regulations would also impose real costs on consumers," Lee continued.  "With no options to create capital for building tomorrow's Internet, broadband providers will simply look to the consumer again in the form of higher monthly broadband bills.  This is simply unacceptable.  We look forward to the FCC learning of this reality and steering clear of the hysteria being spread by net neutrality supporters." 

The Center for Individual Freedom (www.cfif.org) is a non-profit constitutional and free-market advocacy organization that fights to advance the principles of limited government, and protect individual freedom and rights in the legal, legislative and educational arenas.  CFIF opposes over-burdensome federal, state and local regulations and taxes that impede Internet evolution and e-commerce.