“Net neutrality” and governments’ authority to regulate the internet, including service providers who provide the “pipes” for web postings, has risen in acute fashion in the U.S. This month a federal court ruled that the FCC had overstepped the bound of its authority when it sought to order Comcast, one of two big cable/telephone/internet providers that dominate the U.S. market, to stop slowing the delivery speeds of some clients that consume a great deal of bandwidth.
Obama Administration Releases FCC’s “National Broadband Plan"
A plan to drastically reshape America’s broadband policy was released amid great anticipation by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in March 2010. The National Broadband Plan (known as the NBP or just “the Plan”)[1], it is a sweeping set of proposals produced in response to the Congress’s direction (in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act or ARRA to develop a plan with the primary objective of providing ubiquitous access to high-speed broadband service throughout America. The ARRA also required that the Plan set forth a detailed strategy for utilizing broadband to advance a set of broad policy goals, including “consumer welfare, civic participation, public safety and homeland security, community development, health care delivery, energy independence and efficiency, education, worker training, private sector investment, entrepreneurial activity, job creation and economic growth, and other national purposes.”[2]
On Wednesday, February 17, 2010, The European Institute convened a special meeting of the European-American Policy Forum with Sigi Gruber, Head of Unit for Analysis and Monitoring of Research Policies around the World in DG Research at the European Commission and Dr. Norman P. Neureiter, Senior Advisor at the Center for Science, Technology, and Security Policy at the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The meeting addressed frameworks for transatlantic partnership on research & development and innovation. While the European Union has placed renewed emphasis on research and innovation Ms. Gruber outlined Commission initiatives in research cooperation and highlighted the importance of research, innovation and education in the EU 2020 Strategy. Dr. Neureiter discussed the challenges in international research cooperation, including funding, research duplication and visa regimes. He also recognized that cooperation between scientific communities or Science Diplomacy, can be an effective diplomatic tool with countries where political relations are stressed or lacking.
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