The taming of the dingo: Wising up on net neutrality

If a single moment can ever distill a complex policy choice, Tom Wheeler described one at the Consumer Electronics Show that vacated Las Vegas last weekend.

The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission - the ex-cable and wireless lobbyist that comedian John Oliver famously likened to a wild dingo hired to serve as a babysitter - was onstage for a conversation with Gary Shapiro, head of the Consumer Electronics Association.

Wheeler had already alluded to Washington's biggest open secret: that he plans to chart a decidedly un-dingo-like path toward tighter regulation of broadband Internet, a sector dominated by powerful network owners such as Verizon, AT&T, and Philadelphia's Comcast. And at a showcase for the fiercely competitive, trillion-dollar tech industry, whose digital inventions often rely on the good graces of Internet service providers, Wheeler didn't have to reach far for a sign he was on the right course.

He found it at a booth for one of about 900 companies pitching "Internet of Things" devices, such as digital systems for home security and automation.

"There was an Ethernet port in their router that has to go into the router of the ISP," Wheeler told Shapiro. That raised a basic question, Wheeler said: "How do you make sure that that pathway stays open?" - especially now that network owners offer competing products, as they have always done for TV and phones.

The answer, he said, is that such companies clearly "demand open networks."

For more than a decade, under both Republican and Democratic leadership, the FCC has sought to balance light-touch regulation with a commitment to an "open Internet" - a balance repeatedly contested by network owners. Last January, Verizon won the latest challenge to the FCC's light-touch Title I approach, under which broadband is considered an "information service" rather than a telecommunications service.

Now, Wheeler is poised to take a step long urged by consumer advocates: reclassifying broadband as a more closely regulated Title II telecom service - as a "common carrier," in essence, like the nation's phone and railroad networks.

It's a politically fraught path that has already stirred antiregulatory furor on the right and in Congress, but Wheeler is moving forward with support from President Obama and from four million commenters to the FCC - a vox populi partly stirred to action by Oliver's viral HBO piece last summer on "network neutrality," the underlying principle that bars network owners from favoring one company's bits over another's.

"The only two words that promise more boredom in the English language are 'featuring Sting,' " Oliver joked on his satirical news show, before explaining why neutrality - which governed the Net's early years and has always governed phone networks - is so crucial.

"It's why the Internet is a weirdly level playing field," he said. "That's how Facebook supplanted MySpace, which supplanted Friendster, which supplanted actually having any friends. Do you remember physically having friends?"

Oliver's humor was fueled by plenty of stereotypes, such as when he urged Internet trolls to channel their rage at the FCC. But with his help, it is possible Wheeler can finally lay to rest another stereotype: one that says regulations are inherently antibusiness. Wheeler makes a forceful case that smart rules of the road are needed to ensure that any market thrives - and that competition is sadly lacking among U.S. broadband providers.

On that front, CES itself offered a study in contrasts. Nearly every product sector displayed vibrant, freewheeling competition. But, as Wheeler explained, most U.S. consumers have, at best, access to two broadband providers, and most have only their local cable company. For consumers and prices, duopoly isn't much better than monopoly, especially when switching providers isn't easy.

Wheeler promises a "new paradigm," modeled on how Title II governs wireless networks, that he says would meet the FCC's consistent goals: fostering innovation and competition without discouraging investment.

We'll see if he can pull it off. But he's already proved Oliver wrong. He's anything but a dingo.