Broadband's Impact
One Day After FCC’s Net Neutrality Repeal, Focus Turns to Reactions and Responses

WASHINGTON, December 15, 2017 – The Federal Communications Commission’s Thursday vote to repeal the “open internet” rules classifying broadband services as common carriers represents the most significant regulatory shift in the internet in more than a decade. Critics in Congress, at the agency, and even on late-night TV wasted no time in blasting it.
These repealed network neutrality regulations prohibited broadband internet providers from speeding up or slowing down certain websites’ internet traffic based on financial or business relationships. Now, internet providers will be free to throttle, block and prioritize traffic, so long as they provide notice to consumers that they are doing so.
The most recent iteration of those regulations were put in place by the FCC under President Obama in February 2015. It was based on Title II of the Communication Act, which regulates common carriers like telephone companies.
Such common carriage rules require telephone providers to treat all traffic the same in the same way. For example, Ma Bell was prohibited from prioritizing voice calls over fax calls, or prioritizing the calls of customers who buy telephone handsets from the phone company over those who didn’t.
Broadband reverts to being an information service ‘regulated’ under Title I
Under the rules that the FCC will implement after Thursday’s vote, broadband internet access service will revert to being “regulated” under Title I. That section of the law governs “ancillary services,” and for decades the FCC has classified “information services” under this lesser regulatory standard.
These information services are not subject to the same kinds of requirements as are common carriers.
Thursday’s result was only the latest chapter in a public policy battle that has raged since the waning years of the George W. Bush Administration.
At the time, the FCC under then-Chairman Kevin Martin ruled that Comcast had discriminated against peer-to-peer file-sharing applications by blocking traffic using the BitTorrent application.
The agency had held that Comcast’s actions departed from standard industry practice and did not fall under the category of “reasonable network management.” That was, then, part of the standard under which the FCC would allow a broadband provider to manage traffic.
Chairman Julius Genachowski, the first chairman selected by Obama, said that the FCC would be a “smart cop on the beat.” Genachowski proposed network neutrality rules that would enforceable under Title I – the less-regulatory standard – of the law. But those rules were also struck down by the D.C. Circuit Court.
In part, that led Genachowski’s successor Tom Wheeler to take the stricter step of reclassifying broadband under Title II.
Taking enforcement authority for internet violations out of the hands of the FCC
Not only does the FCC’s action Thursday undo that reclassification, it goes further by declaring that the FCC will not attempt to regulate broadband providers at all. Additionally, enforcement of what little that remains of the “net neutrality” rules are passed to the Federal Trade Commission.
The FTC can only take enforcement actions after a violation of consumer protection rules has occurred. Further, under a recent decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, the FTC may not even have the authority to regulate broadband providers at all.
The Department of Justice Antitrust Division could also initiate litigation. But that can take years to achieve a result.
While Pai characterized Thursday’s vote as a return to the “light-touch” regulation that existed before 2015, it goes further. It abdicates the authority and responsibility that Martin – a Republican considered an ardent foe of network neutrality – acknowledged that the FCC possessed.
Sharply critical reactions from Democrats in Congress
In addition to strong comments by Congressional Democrats like Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-California, and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Massachusetts, progressives and other advocates of net neutrality rules through their lot behind arguments that the FCC cannot simply abandon it authority to enforce consumer-focused standards for an internet.
During a conference call with media last week, former FCC general counsel Jonathan Sallet predicted that the courts would not allow the FCC to pick and choose which parts of the law to enforce.
“The draft order seems to say that the FCC is no longer interested in exercising its responsibilities as an expert agency,” said Sallet. “I do not believe a court of appeals will uphold this order.”
On Thursday, Markey and Eshoo added that in addition to leading efforts to draft an amicus brief for litigation in support of the rules, Markey said he will introduce a resolution under the Congressional Review Act that would overturn the FCC’s decision.
Senator Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont – who conducted a Judiciary Committee field hearing in Vermont on the subject of network neutrality — also condemned Thursday’s vote in a statement.
“Today the FCC took a wrecking ball to the pillars of freedom and openness upon which the Internet was built. Without the protection of net neutrality rules, powerful telecommunication companies can decide which content gets preferential treatment and which gets throttled or even blocked,” he said.
Leahy added that the decision will hurt consumers, small businesses, and startups by stifling innovation and competition, and pledged to keep fighting until the protections are restored.
Late-night comedians weigh in with their studied analyses
Even late-night television hosts whose employers have interests in the debate got in on attacking the FCC’s decision, with Stephen Colbert of CBS (which runs its’ own video streaming service), Seth Meyers of NBC (which is owned by Comcast), and Jimmy Kimmel of ABC (which is owned by Disney, which is starting its own video streaming services which could be blocked under the new rules) condemning the vote, which Kimmel called “absolutely despicable.”
“So now, we have to hope Congress agrees to vote on and reverse it,” Kimmel said. “So, thank you, President Trump – thanks to you and this (explitive deleted) [Pai] you appointed to run the FCC — big corporations are about to take control of the internet.”
Critics also raise concerns about the FCC’s public comment process
Kimmel noted that many of the public comments filed with the FCC that were in favor the repeal turned out to have been filed under the names of dead people.
Wheeler and others had previously noted that problems with the public comment process, which attracted more comments than any other rulemaking in the FCC’s history.
That could factor into litigation seeking to overturn the new rules by allowing network neutrality advocates to claim that the FCC did not properly follow the Administrative Procedure Act.
Internet service providers pleased with the decision
While consumer groups and most technology companies were vehemently against repealing the 2015 rules, perhaps the only groups excited about the FCC’s vote were those associated with large broadband providers.
Michael Powell, President and CEO of NCTA – The Internet Association, praised the FCC’s decision in a statement released to reporters.
“Today’s FCC action rightly restores the light-touch approach to government regulation of the internet that has fostered the development of a vibrant, open and innovative platform,” Powell said. “For decades, America’s internet service providers have delivered an open internet – allowing consumers to enjoy the lawful internet content and applications of their choosing.”
Powell said that Internet providers have repeatedly pledged to continue to adhere to the now-repealed rules, but did not explain why his association’s members lobbied so aggressively for the rules’ repeal if they still want to follow them.
The two Democratic FCC commissioners minced no words
Democrats on the FCC railed against Pai and the Republican majority in angry statements delivered before the vote.
“I dissent from this rash decision to roll back net neutrality rules,” Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat said.
“I dissent. I dissent from this fiercely spun, legally lightweight, consumer-harming, corporate-enabling Destroying Internet Freedom Order,” said Rosenworcel’s senior Democratic colleague.
(Photo of Sen. Patrick Leahy, among the critics of the FCC’s Thursday decision on net neutrality.)
Broadband's Impact
House GOP Uses Oversight Hearing to Criticize FCC Actions
Partisan disputes return to FCC policies after years of a 2-2 split on the commission.

WASHINGTON, December 1, 2023 – GOP lawmakers took the opportunity to slam recent Federal Communications Commission efforts at a House oversight hearing on Thursday.
That did not come as a surprise, with the communications and technology subcommittee branding the hearing as overseeing “President Biden’s broadband takeover.” Partisan disputes have resumed around FCC policies since the appointment of commissioner Anna Gomez, who gave Democrats a 3-2 majority on the commission.
The hearing also touched on spectrum policy and the Affordable Connectivity Program, which is still set to dry up in April 2024 despite months of calls for its renewal.
Digital discrimination
The FCC voted along party lines on November 15 to instate rules addressing gaps in broadband access along racial and class lines. Those rules are taking an approach industry groups opposed and allow the commission to take enforcement action against companies for practices that do not intentionally withhold broadband from protected groups.
Technology and Communications Subcommittee members and Republican commissioner Brendan Carr echoed talking points from an industry lobbying push that characterized the rules as a “micromanagement” effort to scrutinize routine business practices.
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Washington, said “burdensome requirements like these will discourage deployment and harm our efforts to close the digital divide.”
Rodgers sparred with FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel on the issue, interrupting her answers to questions to reclaim time.
Rosenworcel, for her part, stuck to her argument that the rules are in line with the Infrastructure Act, which mandates the commission take action “preventing discrimination of access based on income level, race, ethnicity, color, religion, or national origin.”
“The language in this statute is exceptionally broad,” she said.
The act also directs the commission to take into account technical and economic feasibility of deploying networks in poor and rural areas, but Rosenworcel’s assurances that the FCC will do so have not convinced industry or Republicans.
Net neutrality
The commission also moved forward on plans to reinstate net neutrality rules in October. The rules would classify broadband internet as a telecommunications service under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934, opening the industry up to more expansive regulatory oversight from the FCC.
Similar rules were in place for two years before being repealed by the Trump FCC in 2017.
Republican committee members grilled the commission on Democratic warnings that the repeal would result in widespread traffic throttling, which did not materialize at scale in Title II’s absence.
Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Bob Latta, R-Ohio, asked Rosenworcel “when the so-called net neutrality rules were repealed, did it end the internet as we know it today, yes or no?”
The commission chairwoman answered a string of similar questions by saying the anticlimactic end to Title II broadband rules was “a result of more than about a dozen states stepping in and developing their own net neutrality laws.”
Commissioner Carr also argued with Rosenworcel on Title II’s impact on national security, talking over each other at points. Carr said there had been “one briefing” in his six year tenure in which he was told about a security issue the government could not address without Title II oversight over broadband.
Rosenworcel said she has told national security authorities “over and over again” that without Title II authority, she cannot take requested actions to stop bad actors from hijacking traffic.
The commission is taking public comments on the proposed net neutrality rules until January 2024.
Broadband's Impact
FCC Pushes Congress on Spectrum Auction Authority, ACP Funding at Oversight Hearing
Commissioners from both parties emphasized the issues to the House Communications and Technology Subcommittee.

WASHINGTON, November 30, 2023 – The Federal Communications Commission asked Congress to move on renewing the agency’s auction authority and funding the Affordable Connectivity Program at a House oversight hearing on Thursday.
“We badly need Congress to restore the agency’s spectrum auction authority,” said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel at the hearing. “I have a bunch of bands that are sitting in the closet at the FCC.”
Rosenworcel pointed to 550 megahertz in the 12.7-13.25 GHz band. The commission would “be able to proceed to auction on that relatively quickly” if given the go ahead, she said.
The commission’s authority to auction spectrum expired for the first time in March after Congress failed to extend it. Auction authority lets the commission auction off and issue licenses allowing the use of certain electromagnetic frequency bands for wireless communication.
Repeated pushes to restore the ability, first handed to the commission in 1996, have stalled in the face of gridlock on Capitol Hill.
Opening up spectrum is becoming more necessary as emerging technologies and expanding networks compete for finite airwaves. The Joe Biden administration unveiled a plan this month to begin two-year studies of almost 2,800 MHz of government spectrum for potential commercial use.
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr said that’s not fast enough. “I would have had the spectrum plan actually free up more than zero megahertz of spectrum,” he said.
Rosenworcel said the FCC was in talks with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the agency that wrote up the plan, during the drafting process. When asked if the NTIA followed her recommendations, she said she would “like everyone to move faster and have a bigger pipeline in general.”
Commissioners expressed support for a House bill that would give the FCC temporary authority to issue the licenses it already auctioned off for 5G networks in the 2.5 GHz band. An identical bill passed the Senate in September.
T-Mobile took home more than 85 percent of the 8,000 total licenses in the band for $304 million, but the company and other winners cannot legally use their spectrum until the FCC issues the licenses.
Affordable Connectivity Program
Also at the top of commissioners’ minds was the Affordable Connectivity Program. Set up with $14 billion from the Infrastructure Act, the program provides a monthly internet subsidy for 22 million low-income households.
The program is expected to run out of money in April 2024.
“We have come so far, we can’t go back,” Rosenworcel said. “We need Congress to continue to fund this program. If it does not, in April of next year we’ll have to unplug households.”
The Biden administration asked Congress in October for $6 billion in the upcoming appropriations bill to keep the ACP afloat through December 2024. The government has been funded since September by stop-gap measures, with House Republicans ousting former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-CA, over his unwillingness to cut spending and making similar demands of his replacement.
A coalition of 26 governors joined the chorus of calls to extend the program on November 16. Lawmakers, activists, and broadband companies have been sounding the alarm on the program’s expiration for months as the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment effort gets underway. Without the subsidy, experts have said, households could be unable to access the new infrastructure built by BEAD.
Representative Yvette Clarke, D-NY, said of the ACP shortfall that she is “looking forward to introducing legislation on that very subject before Congress concludes its work for the year.”
Broadband Updates
All States and Territories Have Released BEAD Proposals for Public Comment
The proposals detail plans for the $42.5 billion broadband expansion program.

WASHINGTON, November 22, 2023 – All 56 states and territories have now released for comment their Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment initial proposals.
Funded by the 2021 Infrastructure, Investment and Jobs Act, the BEAD program provides $42.5 billion for expanding broadband infrastructure. That money was allocated to states and territories in June based on their unconnected populations.
A final wave released their proposals for funding projects with that money in recent weeks, with Florida bringing the total to 56 on Wednesday.
States and territories are required to submit those proposals, which come in two volumes, to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration by December 27. So far, 24 have submitted volume one and three have submitted volume two
Volume one details how states will ground-truth broadband coverage data. The Federal Communications Commission’s largely provider-reported coverage map was used to allocate BEAD money, but is not considered accurate enough to determine which specific locations lack broadband.
Volume two outlines states’ plans for administering grant programs with their BEAD funds. That includes provisions like how grant applications will be scored, financing requirements, and the price at which states will start to consider technology other than the fiber-optic cable favored by the program.
The NTIA approved volume one from Louisiana on September 22 and Virginia on October 25, allowing their challenge processes to kick off. Those are each slated to last 90 days, after which the states will have finalized their list of which locations are eligible for BEAD-funded broadband.
The agency has yet to approve a volume two.
States are able to submit volume one before volume two, an effort by the NTIA to get challenge processes started and expedite the program’s process.
Once a state or territory’s volume two is approved, it will have one year to award grants under the process outlined in that volume and submit a final proposal to the NTIA. Projects are slated to get underway after the agency signs off on those final proposals.
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