WASHINGTON, DC — Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin has dropped the requirement that a proposed nationwide free wireless broadband service be filtered for pornography and other “objectionable” content, Ars Technica reported December 29th.“I’m saying if this is a problem for people, let’s take it away,” Martin told the techie e-zine’s Matthew Lasar. “A lot of public interest advocates have said they would support this, but were concerned about the filter. Well, now there’s an item in front of the commissioners and it no longer has the filter. And I’ve already voted for it without the filter now. So it’s already got one vote.”
Martin indicated he already has circulated the new filter-free proposal, but so far no other commissioners have signed on in support.
Otherwise, according to Lasar, the proposal remains the same: The winner of a spectrum auction will be required to roll out high-speed wireless service across half the U.S. within four years and to 95 percent of the country within 10 years. The basic tier would be free of charge; additional speed can be gained for a fee. In addition, the service would not be allowed to discriminate between applications or devices.
The filtering requirement, though, was the most controversial aspect. Free-speech advocates called the rule government censorship of the Internet, while social conservatives hailed the criterion as a major victory in the war on smut.
The proposal, with the filtering requirement intact, last was slated for consideration during an FCC open commission meeting scheduled for December 18th. After some members of Congress requested the commission not act on any new items until after President-elect Barack Obama is sworn in January 20th, commissioners not only tabled the scheduled wireless broadband vote, but cancelled the meeting entirely. The commission planned to meet via audio-conference on December 30th, but no specific items were on the agenda.
Although the free wireless broadband proposal could be considered during the next regularly scheduled open commission meeting on January 15th, Martin told Ars Technica that was unlikely to happen.
“Typically in January all the commission does is do reports on the status of the industry,” he said. “That’s what we’ve done for the last few years, saying ‘Here’s what the Commission has been trying to achieve. Here’s where we are.’”
