WASHINGTON-The Telecommunications Industry Association is urging lawmakers and regulators to maintain the “hands off the ‘Net” approach.
“The communications industry continues to boom … Deployment of broadband will be crucial for this growth to continue,” said TIA President Matthew J. Flanigan, speaking Tuesday with reporters at a TIA quarterly press briefing.
TIA sent letters to Reps. Thomas Bliley (R-Va.), chairman of the House Commerce Committee, Henry J. Hyde (R-Illinois), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and William Kennard, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.
“Regulators and policy makers should exercise humility when trying to predict how this nascent industry will evolve,” TIA said in all three letters.
“It is critical that you and your colleagues understand that broadband deployment will not occur at a robust pace if regulation interferes with market forces,” said Flanigan in the letters to the lawmakers.
“The FCC’s hands-off approach to the Internet, or a `do no harm’ first and foremost principle, clearly is one of the reasons it has developed as it has, and such an approach continues to be necessary to ensure that the Internet continues to evolve into the critical backbone of society-for business, social, educational and entertainment purposes,” TIA said to Kennard.
