Something for Nothing: Commisso Looking for His ROI in Net Neutrality Debate

Count on Mediacom’s Rocco Commisso not to prevaricate about the bush. NCTA has shied away from whether cable should be able to charge companies for the use of its broadband pipe, maintaining that the business models are still emerging and that the govt should stay out of net neutrality. Commisso was a little more forthright Mon. He proclaimed that the govt should stay out, but if anything is to be changed, it should be that "if people use our pipe, we should get something out of it." Speaking at ACA’s DC Summit, the outspoken Commisso complained about programmers who use his broadband pipe to sell episodes of shows online. While they make money, they turn around and say, "’Don’t let Rocco charge anybody for this usage,’" he said during a panel moderated by Cfax’s Paul Maxwell. Commisso also took net neutrality proponent Google to task for seeking "special favors" in DC, despite having a larger market valuation than the entire cable industry. "We made a huge investment … in our infrastructure and I don’t think the govt should come in and tell us how we should run that infrastructure," Commisso said. "Why don’t they go out and tell the oil companies how much they should charge for the damn gas?" Later, Commisso summed up his net neutrality views as follows: "Don’t tinker with the existing laws, but at the end of the day, I should get a return on my investment."