On the Hill

The major broadband providers skipped last week’s FCC hearing on network management, but NCTA pres/CEO Kyle McSlarrow will carry their message to the Hill Tues when he testifies before the Sen Commerce Committee. "Sound network management is essential to ensuring a stable broadband platform," McSlarrow says in prepared testimony. " Google, Yahoo, Amazon, and service providers like Vonage could not carry on their businesses if bandwidth-consuming applications were allowed to block customers from accessing their Web sites or completing their transactions." McSlarrow reiterates cable’s mantra that govt intervention is unnecessary. Also slated to testify: actress Justine Bateman (Mallory from "Family Ties"), Christian Coalition‘s Michele Combs (she gave an impassioned plea for govt intervention at the FCC’s hearing last week, specifically calling out the cable industry), net neutrality preacher/Stanford law prof Lawrence Lessig and WGA pres Patric Verrone.