Dingell urges FCC to abandon Title II Plan

Rep. John Dingell, D-MI, has urged FCC chairman Julius Genachowski to “abandon” his effort to reclassify broadband under some Title II regulations. He wants the FCC chairman to wait for Congress to weigh in on the issue.

In a letter to Genachowski, Dingell charged that the FCC plan lacked sufficient detail and confirmed his “fear” that the chairman’s so-called “third way” proposal was “bad policy” that would lead to “protracted litigation.” He said of the chairman’s defense that it was based on “unsound reasoning and an incomplete record.”

Dingell has long had major problems with the FCC proposal. He called for the commission to stand down and let Congress step in.

Genachowski is attempting to clarify the FCC’s authority over broadband access services in order to make sure it can implement the national broadband plan and expand and codify its Internet openness guidelines. The FCC proposal came after a court decision voiding the FCC’s Comcast/BitTorrent decision. It said the FCC failed to identify its statutory authority to sanction Comcast for blocking peer-to-peer uploads.