The announcement brings the telcos into line with cable companies, who won a Supreme Court ruling in June that a service offering broadband access over cable networks is an “information service” and not a telephone service, which is subject to regulation under the Communications Act.
Until now, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has required telephone companies to offer wireless broadband transmission services at reduced rates to independent internet service providers. However, following the Supreme Court decision, these services have been redefined as “information services functionally integrated with a telecommunications component”, and reduced rates are no longer required.
The re-classification will come as a bitter blow to independent ISPs such as Earthlink and AOL, who face paying more for accessing the networks, or losing access altogether. However, the FCC has softened the blow a little by ensuring that the changes will not come into effect for a year.
According to the FCC, the re-classification will “enable wireline broadband internet access providers to respond quickly to consumer demand with efficient, innovative services and spur more vigorous head-to-head competition with broadband services provided over other platforms.”
Separately, the FCC has also determined that the providers of certain broadband and internet telephony services that allow users to receive calls from, and place calls to, the public switched telephone network, will have to accommodate law enforcement wiretaps.
According to the FCC, these services essentially replace conventional telecommunications services, which are currently subject to wiretap rules.
As such, the new services are covered by the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, or CALEA, which requires the FCC to preserve the ability of law enforcement agencies to conduct court-ordered wiretaps in the face of technological change.
ISP and internet telephony providers will have 18 months in which to make the necessary arrangements.
According to the FCC, its order “strikes an appropriate balance between fostering competitive broadband and advanced services deployment and technological innovation on one hand, and meeting the needs of the law enforcement community on the other.”
Civil liberties groups are not so sure. According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the ruling is a reinterpretation of the scope of CALEA, which mandates that all telephone providers build tappability into their networks, but expressly rules out information services like broadband.
"Expanding CALEA to the internet is contrary to the statute and is a fundamentally flawed public policy," said Kurt Opsahl, EFF staff attorney. "This misguided tech mandate endangers the privacy of innocent people, stifles innovation and risks the functionality of the internet as a forum for free and open expression."