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of the [information service] definition,” US Telecom Pet’rs’
Br. 30—namely, that it “offer[s] . . . a capability for
generating, acquiring, storing, transforming, processing,
retrieving, utilizing, or making available information via
telecommunications,” 47 U.S.C. § 153(24). Accordingly, US
Telecom argues, broadband service “cannot fall within the
mutually exclusive category of telecommunications service.”
US Telecom Pet’rs’ Br. 30 (internal quotation marks and
footnote omitted). But this argument ignores that under the
statute’s definition of “information service,” such services are
provided “via telecommunications.” 47 U.S.C. § 153(24).
This, then, brings us back to the basic question: do broadband
providers make a standalone offering of telecommunications?
US Telecom’s argument fails to provide an unambiguous
answer to that question.
US Telecom next claims that 47 U.S.C. § 230, enacted as
part of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, a portion
of the Telecommunications Act, “confirms that Congress
understood Internet access to be an information service.” US
Telecom Pet’rs’ Br. 33. Section 230(b) states that “[i]t is the
policy of the United States . . . to promote the continued
development of the Internet and other interactive computer
services and other interactive media.” 47 U.S.C. § 230(b)(1).
In turn, section 230(f) defines an “interactive computer
service” “[a]s used in this section” as “any information
service, system, or access software provider that provides or
enables computer access by multiple users to a computer
server, including specifically a service or system that provides
access to the Internet.” Id. § 230(f)(2). According to US
Telecom, this definition of “interactive computer service”
makes clear that an information service “includes an Internet
access service.” US Telecom Pet’rs’ Br. 33. As the
Commission pointed out in the Order, however, it is “unlikely
that Congress would attempt to settle the regulatory status of
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