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Comcast Comes Out in Support of Comcast's Version of Net Neutrality

The telecom giant responds to Obama's plan for an open internet.

Comcast says it supports net neutrality—the kind that President Obama advocated for yesterday. But does it?

Hours after calling the President's plan a "radical reversal" that would wreck the telecom industry, the company noted in a blog post today that it is "on the record as agreeing with every point" of his proposal. Except for the most important one. Comcast vehemently disagrees with idea that internet access is a utility that should be subject to strong regulation, which of course was the point Obama was trying to make.

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In a blog post titled "Surprise! We agree with the president's principles on net neutrality: Reiterating our strong support for the open internet," Comcast exec David Cohen notes that the company practices Obama's proposed rules against blocking, throttling, paid prioritization, and that it supports increased telecom industry transparency. On the first three, he's technically right, at the moment. On the last one, he's dead wrong.

Comcast says that its stance on net neutrality 'is not game playing or sophistry on our part'

It's true that Comcast practices those three principles of net neutrality— because it is legally obligated to under the terms of its last mega merger, the deal in which it acquired NBC. With that deal, Comcast promised to abide by the Federal Communications Commission's 2010 net neutrality rules, regardless of whether a court threw out the rules or not (which it did, which is why we're in this net neutrality mess right now). As such, it legally has to follow those rules until January 1, 2018.

What's the most surefire way to legally ensure all companies abide by net neutrality principles beyond 2018? By classifying the internet as a Title II utility, putting it in the same category as electricity and water, which is the part of Obama's plan that Comcast (and all other big ISPs) hates.

Comcast has obviously been very noncommittal about its plans for net neutrality after 2018, a fact that Senator Al Franken hammered home in a recent letter to the company that noted that three separate times the company dodged questions about its long-term commitment to net neutrality.

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"I therefore write to ask again: Will Comcast commit to abide by its existing net neutrality obligations—including the anti-blocking and anti-discrimination requirements—beyond January 2018 regardless of whether the FCC has implemented new and binding industry-wide net neutrality rules at that time?" Franken wrote.

That seems unlikely, given that no major national telecom company has committed to anything of the sort and has actively fought against it.

Meanwhile, before the NBC merger, Comcast actively lobbied against net neutrality. In the past, it violated [since overturned] FCC rules on net neutrality by throttling customers. It has helped put into place anti municipal broadband laws all throughout the country with the help of organizations like ALEC and the National Cable & Telecommunications Association. It has run fear mongering campaigns about municipal broadband competitors.

Comcast says that its stance on net neutrality "is not game playing or sophistry on our part."

Why in the world would anyone believe that?