Your Free Washington Bureau For ISP Advocacy

Can two people make a difference? They're determined to try. They don't want your money—they want you to write to the FCC.

by Alex Goldman ISP-Planet Managing Editor [November 16, 2004]

Frank Muto, ISPCON board member, principal of the eponymous FSM Marketing Group, and owner of the ISP affiliate sales website ispnetworks.org, says ISPs need to act now to preserve their right to do business.

"We need to let the FCC know the true economic impact of what happens if ISPs go out of business," says Muto.

Muto wants ISPs to simply describe who they are, where they're located, and what they do. An approximate subscriber count and area of coverage would be very useful.

Muto is very pleased that long distance carrier and CLEC association CompTel has set up a form to make it easier to send mail to congressional representatives and to the FCC at its CompTel Action website.

"Everybody was quiet and nobody wanted to talk during the elections," says Muto. "Now that the elections are over, there's an open door. They want to know who the ISP community is."

Some ISPs who remain skeptical that filing comments can change anything should look to the controversy over media ownership limits earlier this year. After the FCC relaxed the limits and ignored filings against the decision, Congress reacted by re-imposing some of the limits (see, for example, Media ownership: Deal loosens limits, but less than FCC wanted).

The reality is just as Thomas Hazlett tells it. In More PANS, Less Pots we quoted the former FCC Chief Economist as saying, "Regulators are very passive. The private sector has to come to them. Regulators listen to the incumbents, listen to the competitors, and then weigh the politics." But if the competitors don't file comments, then the FCC does what the RBOCs want.

A little over a week ago, Cynthia H. de Lorenzi, CEO of Patriot.net, met with Robert Cannon of the FCC (a longtime friend of ISPs—see Making the FCC Your Business). Muto says, "Cannon felt hurt that nobody felt they could talk to the FCC."

Muto says that some ISPs come to the FCC to complain. He suggested that a less confrontational approach would be more effective. Many small ISPs are in rural areas that voted Republican in this election, and Muto feels that gives them a real voice in the new administration.

de Lorenzi, a Rebpublican with family in Virginia, Texas, and Florida, also has good Republican contacts. Together, she and Muto are the Washington Bureau For ISP Advocacy (website here).

Muto says his role is simply to be "the PR guy" in the organization, to talk to journalists and ISPs and get the businesses to file. He says the FCC is aware that many ISPs don't talk to it, and that each ISP that does file therefore counts for the dozens or hundreds that don't file.

The bottom line is that the Bells feel they can own the Internet. That's unfair, Muto says. "While the RBOCs thought the Internet was a fad, we were out there building it. Now they want to own it."

— End