Verizon/Google file joint FCC net neutrality comment

Verizon and (yes) Google have issued a joint comment to the FCC on net neutrality. The document, which is nine pages long, was submitted as a joint comment to outline the companies’ points of agreement (which are largely philosophical), but both companies submitted much larger documents to state their own specific positions.

There are many different views being presented to the FCC, so many that the submissions are clogging the process. The only thing of significance we can read into the combined document is that it appears to sanction the notion of non-Internet broadband services offered by telcos, which would seem to argue against the FCC’s question on whether such services implicitly hurt the Internet by siphoning investment off into other areas. Net neutrality policy is more significant now that it appears the U.S. Court of Appeals may side with Comcast in saying the FCC’s four principles lack force of law because they weren’t done as a formal FCC order.