Verizon: Interconnection is Not Net Neutrality Issue

Verizon told the FCC in a filing Wednesday (Dec. 17) that it needs to keep the issue of interconnection and traffic exchange among networks separate from the open Internet proceedings and that, in any event, it cannot apply Title II regs to interconnection, as some have proposed.

One proposed hybrid Sec. 706/Title II proposal suggests applying net neutrality regs to interconnection agreements between broadband networks including to last-mile networks.

Verizon calls that "misplaced and wrong." It points out, as have others, that the FCC itself has historically deemed those interconnection agreements distinct from network neutrality. It also says those agreements are "quintessentially private carriage agreements and cannot be regulated as common carriage.

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John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.