How consumers' groups aim to shape telecom policy | Part 3

(Part 3 of 4)

Some long-standing groups such as Consumers Union and Consumer Federation of America -- profiled in part one and part two of this series -- focus on a wide variety of consumer issues, including telecom. But several newer consumer groups — including Free Press and Public Knowledge — are devoted solely to telecom and communications issues.

Free Press was launched in 2002 by media scholar Robert W. McChesney, journalist John Nichols and the organization’s executive director Josh Silver, with the goal of being a “grass-roots” organization.

“The idea behind it was that on every major political issue, such as health care, education, or energy, there were large civic organizations to represent people in Washington, but there was no entity of that sort in media and telecom,” said Ben Scott, policy director for Free Press.

Pointing to organizations such as the Sierra Club and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People as role models, Scott said Free Press accepts anyone who wants to join. Membership is free, although a small percentage of members do contribute financially. The organization also receives some financial support from foundations.

The organization today has 500,000 members and has grown from a staff of two to more than 30. A Massachusetts office focuses on public education and town meetings and on educating members using online tools. A Washington DC office staffed by lawyers and researchers studies and monitors the regulatory process and identifies decisions it wants to be involved in shaping.

“We study the problem and do our own analysis to produce position papers,” Scott said. “We encourage members to participate if they see fit.”

Like Public Knowledge, Consumers Union and Consumer Federation of America, Free Press supports net neutrality measures.

In testimony before Congress in April, Scott delivered an analysis of promotional claims from manufacturers of deep packet inspection (DPI) products aimed at enabling service providers to offer differentiated classes of service, which are opposed by net neutrality supporters. The manufacturers didn’t win any fans when claims that their products could “see, manage and monetize individual flows to individual subscribers” or “reduce the performance of applications with negative influence on revenues, such as competitive VoIP services" were revealed outside the telecom industry.