In a Sunday report in the New York Times, Susan Crawford – an ex-adviser to President Obama – said that a formal reclassification of Web access as “telecommunications services” might help the administration to reclaim its authority for pursuing both network neutrality and extensive accessibility of broadband.

In the opinion of Crawford - who was a special assistant to the President for science, technology and innovation policy, and is currently the University of Michigan Law School professor -, the reclassification of Internet access as “telecommunications services”, instead of “information services” would make it easier for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to instruct the providers of high-speed Internet access in a manner it deems fit.

Though the possible reclassification of Internet access services has also been described by Bernstein Research analyst Craig Moffett as the “nuclear option,” Crawford said that the FCC needs to give a sound rationale in support of the Web-access reclassification move.

In the report, Crawford said: “The FCC has the legal authority to change the label, as long as it can provide a good reason.”

Crawford, whose published report came in response to last week ruling of the Federal appeals court in the Comcast case. The court’s verdict in favor of Comcast hinted that the FCC apparently lacks the legal authority to tell Comcast Corp to stop blocking certain uses of its Internet access services.