Google, Verizon to reach net-neutrality deal separate from broader FCC talks

Google and Verizon are closing in on a net-neutrality deal separate from ongoing talks at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which include a broader group of stakeholders.

“We’ve been working with Google for ten months to reach an agreement on broadband policy,” Verizon spokesman David Fish said on Wednesday. “We are currently engaged in and committed to the negotiation process led by the FCC. We are optimistic this process will reach a consensus that can maintain an open Internet and the investment and innovation required to sustain it.”

{mosads}AT&T, which is part of the net-neutrality discussions at the FCC, distanced itself from Google and Verizon’s agreement.

“AT&T is not a party to the purported agreement between Google and Verizon,” Jim Cicconi, AT&T’s senior executive vice president for legislative affairs, said in a statement. “We remain committed to trying to reach a consensus on this issue through the FCC process.”

The FCC talks include NCTA, Verizon, AT&T, Google, the Open
Internet Coalition and Skype. FCC spokeswoman Jen Howard said the discussions “continue to actively include Google and Verizon.”

A prospective Verizon-Google deal reportedly would not apply to wireless communications. The significance of such an agreement remains unclear. It does not appease public interest groups and is not a development the FCC can point to as a sufficient safeguard for consumer Internet traffic after pushing for rules that apply to all carriers.

Public interest groups immediately criticized the agreement. Gigi Sohn, the president of Public Knowledge, said the deal is “regrettable.” 

“The fate of the Internet is too large a matter to
be
decided by negotiations involving two companies, even companies as big
as
Verizon and Google, or even the six companies and groups engaged in
other
discussions at the FCC on similar
topics,” she said, adding that a framework should arise from a public process rather than private talks.

Media Access Project Senior Vice President Andrew Jay Schwartzman said the deal adds a justification for the FCC to increase its legal authority over broadband service providers.

“What is good for Google and Verizon is not necessarily good
for innovation and competition on the Internet. What the two companies
have in common is that both are incumbents with dominant positions in
their markets. It’s no wonder they are prepared to strike a deal that
protects their market position at the detriment of the next Verizon and
the next Google,” he said. 

Free Press chief executive Josh Silver said the deal is a letdown by Google, which has been a strong voice for FCC-led net-neutrality rules in the past.

“Such abuse of the open Internet would put to final rest the Google mandate to ‘do no evil,’ ” he said.

Google and Verizon have teamed up on net neutrality in the past, filing joint comments to the FCC in a net-neutrality rulemaking process. The joint comments listed areas where they see eye to eye, but the two companies also filed independent comments that illustrated major gaps in their views on Internet traffic. 

The possible deal was first reported by Bloomberg on Wednesday
afternoon.