Born during an era when independent BBS operators were considered the Internet, the USIIA continues to represent the interests of ISPs on Capitol Hill—and beyond.

by Alex Goldman ISP-Planet Associate Editor [March 23, 2001]

Dave McClure, president and chief executive officer of the United States Internet Industry Association (USIIA), repines that so-called industry experts keep predicting that the group soon won't have any service providers to represent.

"Pundits keep predicting the death of the ISP, but I predict that ISPs will remain," McClure said. "ISPs have adjusted. They've rolled with all the punches and have been forced to continually reinvent themselves."

Current membership consists of nearly 400 firms, from large companies including Verizon and UPS, to service vendors like Connexant and NetHelp, as well as the sysops of 1bigred.com and TheLitterBox BBS. Public figures who are members of USIIA include Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Dennis C. Hayes of the Hayes Corp., who is a founding member of the group.

Born in the USA
The USIIA was originally called the Association of Online Professionals (AOP). Early members ran bulletin board services, like Robert Dudley's Pine Tree BBS which was first used by members of the Visiting Nurses Program in 1994 and has since been retired with honors.

The association debuted during the hectic atmosphere of BBSCON—the precursor to ISPCON—also in 1994. The Internet advocacy group picked up its first 12 members at the trade show and rapidly began growing its membership base across the nation.

In 1999, the association changed its name to the United States Internet Industry Association.

Knowledge is freedom
The USIIA is active in Washington D.C., providing Internet advocacy at the federal level, but McClure does not consider himself as a lobbyist.

"If you educate people—give them the facts and tell them how the industry works, you get better legislation," McClure said. "Bad policy only occurs when government works in a vacuum."

Accordingly, in April of 2000, the USIIA took on the U.S. Postal service by filing a complaint with the Postal Rate Commission to block it from entering the private market for electronic billing and payment systems. The USIIA also worked with Senator Wyden on the markup language for his Internet Tax Freedom Act, assuring that ISPs were treated fairly by the new law. In addition to legislative support, the USIIA also:

• Presents training sessions about how the Internet works
• Educates public and industry professionals about subjects like spoofing and the definition of spam
• Provides job listings and employment services
• Works with congressional webmasters
• Works with Judy Brewer of the W3C to make websites accessible to people with disabilities
• Provides continuing education services in association with the University of Wisconsin-Stout and PBS
• Distributes a weekly e-mail bulletin about current legislative initiatives as well as industry issues
• Alerts ISP members about U.S. Government rules for disabled Web access and legislation for the 107th congress
• Produces timely reports on hacking threats like "ShareSniffer"

Eying the future
When it comes to high-speed Internet services, McClure observes that broadband rollouts are currently slower than analysts first predicted. And what technology will dominate is anybody's guess, according to McClure.

"Any flavor of broadband that works should be good for the industry as a whole, whether it's DSL, cable, fixed wireless, or other new technologies," McClure said.

As the industry continues to converge, McClure sees content and commerce providers working together with ISPs to jointly sell services to small and medium-sized businesses, sort of working as a IT collective.

"The bottom line is that ISPs own the customer relationship," McClure said. "Other companies will want to work with ISPs to sell DSL and cable access, application services, domain names, and other services. The ISP will remain a business consultant on changing technology."

As for current Internet-related legislation, McClure said that there are no simple solutions for complex problems and that anyone who advocates a simple solution is promoting an unrealistic fix.

One complex problem the USIIA is looking at on behalf of ISPs is buried in HR 718, the Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail Act of 2001. The bill provides ISPs immunity for good faith actions, which block unsolicited email.

McClure noted that there is a fear that ISPs might manipulate that provision to conduct anti-competitive maneuvers against other ISPs, but that careful wording of the bill will eliminate the problem.

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