WASHINGTON, January 29, 2010 – In his keynote address to the Free State Foundation on Friday, Federal Communications Commissioner Robert McDowell said that the agency’s number one goal in the national broadband plan should be to do no harm.

He was concerned, he said, that the agency was considering classifying providers of broadband infrastructure as a common carrier under Title II of the Telecommunications Act.

Re-regulating internet services in such a manner might lead to a parade of horribles, McDowell said – as well as vexing nuts-and-bolts questions since the deregulatory push of the past decade remade the structure of much of telecommunications law.

WASHINGTON, January 8, 2010 – With about a month left until the Federal Communications Commission delivers its National Broadband Plan to Congress, Commissioner Robert McDowell spoke about the impending plan – as well as spectrum politics, Net neutrality and competition in the video media landscape – on C-SPAN’s “The Communicators.”

WASHINGTON, December 16, 2009 – Web content producers applauded the efforts of the Federal Communications Commission to turn Net neutrality principles into enforceable rules – but lawyers, academics and commissioners were divided on whether the agency should begin regulating the internet in the name of democracy and economic growth.

“The genius of the Internet is its openness, its dynamism and its availability to one and all,” said FCC Commissioner Michael Copps in his opening statements at a Tuesday afternoon workshop on “Democratic Engagement and the Open Internet.”

WASHINGTON, November 22, 2009 – In unanimous 5-0 decision, the commissioners of the Federal Communications Commission voted Wednesday to standardize the application process for tower siting requests.

Advocates of the move said that the action marked another step by the agency to speed adoption of broadband in the United States. For example, FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell said, “We are promoting broadband by removing roadblocks to its development.”

WASHINGTON, October 22, 2009 – The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday approved controversial proposed rules governing internet access during its monthly public meeting. Commissioners on all sides of the debate stressed the importance of having an open internet, and in engaging in constructive dialogue on the issue going forward. The move marked the beginning of a formal phase of regulating internet access. Although the FCC in August 2005 adopted a policy statement pledging fidelity to four Net neutrality principles, such a policy was never binding upon all broadband providers. Additionally, the proposed rules go beyond those four generally-accepted neutrality principles.

WASHINGTON, September 22, 2009 – Network neutrality principles outlined by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski on Monday found industry groups and Congress drawing strong lines in reaction to his proposal.

WASHINGTON, September 17, 2009 – FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has “tried to hit the ground running” on a reform agenda since taking office last summer, he told members of a House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Thursday.

WASHINGTON, August 7, 2009 — In addition to the forthcoming National Broadband Strategy, The Federal Communications Commission must reorganize fundamentally to tackle a laundry list of 21st-century issues, Commissioner Robert McDowell said in an interview with C-SPAN’s “The Communicators” series.

WASHINGTON, August 6, 2009 – Mignon Clyburn was sworn in Monday as a commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission. The ceremony took place in her home state of South Carolina, with the oath administered by U.S. Senior District Judge Matthew Perry Jr.

WASHINGTON, July 16, 2009 – The Phoenix Center on Wednesday released a report today that aims to further debunk the frequently-cited Organization for Economic Cooperation Development’s report ranking the United States at 15 in broadband penetration among OECD members.