Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai said that the agency is set to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking that will explain how it wants to eliminate the so-called “net neutrality” laws.
Pai said the NPRM will seek comment on how the FCC should roll back the existing law. First, the agency proposes to return the classification of broadband service from a Title II telecommunications service to a Title I information service. Second, the FCC wants to eliminate the so-called Internet conduct standard. This is the standard the FCC used to warrant its investigation of T-Mobile’s Binge On and other services that offer consumers free data. Those investigations are on hold. Third, the FCC is seeking comment on how it should approach the so-called “bright line” rules, which ban blocking of content, throttling, and paid prioritization.
“The Internet is the greatest free-market success story in history,” Pai said this week in a speech. He said one of the biggest reasons for that success was the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which said U.S. policy makers should strive “to preserve the vibrant and competitive free market that presently exists for the Internet … unfettered by Federal or State regulation.”
“Days after a disappointing 2014 midterm election, and in order to energize a dispirited base, the White House released an extraordinary YouTube video instructing the FCC to implement Title II regulations,” said Pai, probably referring to this video. “This was a transparent attempt to compromise the agency’s independence. And it worked,” said Pai.
In February 2015, the FCC voted to reclassify broadband as a utility under Title II of the Telecommunications Act. The agency’s order includes three key rules. First, broadband providers cannot block access to any lawful content or device. Second, they may not impair or degrade connectivity on the basis of content or paid prioritization. And finally, they may not establish “fast lanes” that offer higher speeds to some providers in exchange for consideration of any kind.
Pai was an FCC commissioner at that time, and he argued that the new rule would raise prices for consumers. “Consumers should expect their bills to go up and they should expect that broadband will be slower going forward,” he said at the time.
This week Pai did not talk about higher prices or new taxes, but he did say that investment in broadband infrastructure has gone down. “Among our nation’s 12 largest Internet service providers, domestic broadband capital expenditures decreased by 5.6% percent, or $3.6 billion, between 2014 and 2016, the first two years of the Title II era,” Pai said. He pointed out that when businesses cut back on capital expenditures, they usually target the places where returns are the lowest, which in this case would mean low-income and rural areas.
Within the wireless industry, critics of the net neutrality laws have pointed out that they may also reduce investment in the technologies needed for 5G and the internet of things. For example, service providers can add software to their networks that can recognize time-sensitive transmissions from a medical facility and prioritize those over Snapchat videos, but the net neutrality laws put these investments into a gray area because they prioritize one type of content over another.
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