Today, the Federal Communications Commissioned opened a “notice of inquiry” regarding the state of broadband and whether there is a need for new online “neutrality” regulation of broadband services.

The following comment may be attributed to Mike McCurry and Christopher Wolf, co-chairs of the Hands Off the Internet coalition (www.HandsOff.org):

“This is a shrewd move by the Commission because it calls the bluff of those lobbying for broad new regulations. Google, Amazon and other pro-regulation companies will have to admit that the existing laws protecting consumers’ Internet experience are working. But once they admit that consumers already have these important legal protections, their entire rationale for ‘neutrality’ regulation is unmasked as a transparent effort to shift Internet build-out costs away from companies and onto ordinary Net users.”

The Hands Off the Internet coalition is a Washington, DC-based coalition of companies and nonprofit organizations that believes the Internet has flourished because government has not tried to regulate it. Members include Alcatel, AT&T, 3M, the National Association of Manufacturers, FiberControl, and Cinergy Communications. Nonprofit members include Citizens Against Government Waste, the American Conservative Union and the National Black Chamber of Commerce.