Net Neutrality

Democrats Seek to Codify Net Neutrality as Fifth FCC Commissioner Hangs

Some say the bill would add heavy regulation that will harm investments and consumers.

Published

1 year ago

August 1, 2022

Ahmad Hathout

Photo of Senator Edward Markey (D-MA) during virtual press conference on Thursday

WASHINGTON, August 1, 2022 – Democratic Senators introduced Thursday a bill that would enshrine into law the concept of net neutrality, which would prevent internet service providers from tinkering with internet traffic, in a move that comes ahead of midterm elections that could alter whether the Federal Communications Commission gets its Democratic fifth commissioner to take unilateral action on the matter.

The Net Neutrality and Broadband Justice Act would give the FCC regulatory authority over broadband by classifying those services as Title II as defined in the 1934 Communications Act. Under Title II, the FCC would have greater regulatory muscle to make providers respect the principle of common carriage – that is, the traffic on their networks will not be throttled, sped up or given preference. Under the current light touch Title I – which was reinstituted by the 2017 commission under chairman Ajit Pai – the FCC does not have that authority, and the commission has previously been blocked by courts to bring net neutrality under Title I.

“My legislation would reverse the damaging approach adopted by the Trump FCC, which left broadband access unregulated, and consumers unprotected. It would give the FCC the tools it needs to protect the free and open internet, creating a just broadband future for everyone in our country,” Senator Edward Markey, D-Mass., said during a virtual press conference hosted by Public Knowledge on Thursday.

Markey noted that the majority of Americans and Republicans favor restoring net neutrality rules in the country.

Public Knowledge, an advocacy group for an open internet, was co-founded by Gigi Sohn, who was nominated by President Joe Biden to be the fifth FCC commissioner. The vote to confirm in the Senate has not happened yet, as some Republicans have complained about Sohn’s ability to be impartial on the commission.

“We’ve gone 544 days into the Biden administration without a fully functional agency. It’s time for Senate leadership to end this senseless delay and get the agency back to full capacity,” said Matt Wood, vice president of policy and general counsel at Free Press Action, in a press release welcoming the bill.

Reintroduction of bill comes as Sohn’s nomination to FCC appears to falter

Sohn, who would be the party tiebreaker on the commission, would have bolstered the FCC’s chance to press for a reclassification of broadband services under Title II. But the longer a vote is not held, the less optimistic some say they are getting that a vote will be held before a midterm election in November that could flip the Senate red.

“Confirmation is still possible, but with the extended August recess and looming midterm election, there aren’t a lot of legislative days to get the job done,” said former FCC Chairman Richard Wiley at an event late last month.

Republican Commissioner Nathan Simington previously said that he would welcome congressional action on net neutrality – instead of an FCC vote on it.

“I have previously stated that the FCC’s 2015 Net Neutrality rules were the right approach,” said FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks in a press release. “That approach is undergirded by a voluminous record and overwhelming public support, and it has been tested in court. The Net Neutrality and Broadband Justice Act would codify just that,”

The bill comes after FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has repeatedly said that she believes net neutrality should be the guiding principle for the internet economy. Rosenworcel was defiant in her support of the principle in response to a letter from Republican representatives who encouraged her not to change her mind on it.

She added in a statement after the bill’s introduction that despite the FCC having the authority it needs to implement net neutrality, “legislation that helps ensure it is the law of the land is welcome.”

“For anyone who wants more innovation, more voices and less corporate control of the internet, net neutrality is an absolute no-brainer,” said Ron Wyden, D-OR, who co-introduced the bill. In 2018, Verizon admitted to throttling the wireless speeds used by California firefighters who were working on a large fire – one of the examples used to illustrate the imposition of such rules.

As such, California has gone its own way in lieu of inaction from Washington. The state won a court battle this year from broadband industry that challenged its own net neutrality law. The law made AT&T pull free sponsored applications to residents.

Critics of the net neutrality measure from the broadband industry

But broadband service providers and the commission that reversed net neutrality rules don’t see it that way. They say that regulations imposed by a net neutrality framework hinders innovation and competition in the market – including being able to provide free access to certain applications.

Michael Powell, CEO of trade association NCTA, said this bill will have a negative effect on closing the digital divide.

“In the wake of the once-in-a-lifetime infrastructure bill, we need to be focused collectively on closing the digital divide and not taking a ride on the net neutrality carousel for the umpteenth time for no discernable reason,” he said.

“Slapping an outdated and burdensome regulatory regime on broadband networks surely will damage the mission to deploy next-generation internet technology throughout America and get everyone connected,” said Powell.

The Wireless Internet Service Providers Association also came out against the bill, saying heavy regulation would hamper their ability to serve underserved areas of the country. “The bill’s Title II requirements would create real threats to their ongoing viability,” the release said.

“Net neutrality may be a mixed bag, but common carrier regulation would inhibit competition, private investment and innovation, and further confound the complex task of eradicating the digital divide,” it added.

Another trade group USTelecom said it is concerned such regulation would hamper investments in broadband networks. “There is bipartisan support for net neutrality, but legislative proposals that would put any of this progress at risk are not the right answer,” said CEO Jonathan Spalter in a release. “Let’s keep our focus on moving consumers’ internet experiences forward, not backward.”

Non-profit research institution the Free State Foundation added that this type of bill will impose heavy-handed regulation that will harm consumers.

“[T]here is no present evidence, and there hasn’t been any for years, that ISPs have engaged in any deliberate discriminatory conduct,” said the FSF in a press release. “Almost all ISPs’ terms of service contain legally enforceable commitments not to block or throttle subscribers’ access to lawful content.

“To the extent that a couple of old incidents are cited that conceivably would run afoul of stringent anti-discrimination prohibitions, they have been isolated and quickly remedied,” the FSF added. “That’s why the net neutrality advocates are left to conjecture about what ‘might,’ ‘could,’ or ‘possibly’ happen absent new regulation, rather than identifying any existing problem warranting costly new regulatory mandates.”

With reporting by Riley Haight.

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Ahmad Hathout

Managing Editor Ahmad Hathout has spent the last half-decade reporting on the Canadian telecommunications and media industries for leading publications. He started the scoop-driven news site downup.io to make Canadian telecom news more accessible and digestible. Follow him on Twitter @ackmet.

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Net Neutrality

FCC Moves to Reinstate Net Neutrality, Keeps Rules Open for Comment

Public comment open until December 14, with reply comments due on January 17, 2024.

Published

2 months ago

October 19, 2023

Jake Neenan

Screenshot of FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel at the Commission's October 19 meeting.

WASHINGTON, October 19, 2023 – The Federal Communications Commission voted on Thursday to move forward with its proposal to reinstate net neutrality rules.

The move would reclassify broadband internet as a telecommunications service under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934, opening the industry up to more expansive oversight from the FCC, akin to its authority over voice providers.

“You’re dealing with the most central infrastructure in the digital age. Come on, it’s time for a national policy,” said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel in remarks supporting the proposal.

Similar rules were put in place under the Obama administration’s FCC, but Trump-appointee Ajit Pai repealed them after just two years in 2017.

Reclassifying broadband would bring restrictions on adjusting internet traffic speeds and other heightened fairness standards. The commission’s proposal chooses not to enforce 26 of the most onerous Title II provisions, like explicit rate regulation and network unbundling.

The proposal will be up for public comment until mid-January 2024, after which the commission will deliberate and either issue a new proposal for comment or put a rule into effect.

Commissioner Brendan Carr expressed doubt about the move’s legal viability. The FCC’s 2015 implementation of net neutrality rules passed legal muster, as did a similar 1998 reclassification of DSL services to Title II status.

But there has since been a “sea change in administrative law,” said Carr. The Supreme Court has in recent years been less deferential to federal agencies’ interpretations of the law, bucking the practice of giving expert regulators broader authority to carry out their congressional mandates.

Absent an explicit move from Congress, the Title II reclassification “will not survive a Supreme Court encounter,” Carr said.

Commissioners voted along party lines, with the two Republicans dissenting and the three Democrats approving the measure. Despite net neutrality being a priority for President Joe Biden and Chairwoman Rosenworcel, the commission was unable to move on the issue until September, when the confirmation of Commissioner Anna Gomez created a Democratic majority.

The proposal will also not put broadband providers in the Universal Service Fund contribution base with other telecommunications service providers. There have been calls by lawmakers to update the program’s funding model, but the FCC has left it to Congress to make those changes.

Comments on the proposal will be due December 14. Reply comments will be due January 17, 2024.

Broadband's Impact

Current FCC Pitches Net Neutrality as a Public Safety Measure

The commission could enforce providers to report and fix outages, Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said.

Published

2 months ago

October 5, 2023

Jake Neenan

Photo of former FCC Chairman Ajit Pai from 2018 by Gage Skidmore used with permission

WASHINGTON, October 5, 2023 – The Federal Communications Commission pitched on Thursday its proposal to reinstate net neutrality rules as a public safety effort.

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced on September 26 plans to classify broadband internet service as a “common carrier” service under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934, reinstituting an Obama-era policy that was repealed in 2017 by Trump-appointed FCC chair Ajit Pai. That would give the commission more authority to regulate internet providers, including the ability to prevent carriers from throttling or speeding up internet traffic to certain websites.

That extra authority, the FCC said in a statement, would allow the commission to address public safety issues that arise from more relaxed federal internet regulations. Specifically, the commission would be able to oversee broadband services for first responders and bolster its authority to require internet providers to report and fix outages, as well as deny internet access to companies controlled by hostile governments.

Industry groups have reacted sharply to the proposal. Broadband providers say the regulations are unnecessary and burdensome, while software companies join human rights organizations in supporting increased oversight.

Rosenworcel has been supportive of net neutrality measures since she joined the FCC in 2021. “I believe the repeal of net neutrality put the agency on the wrong side of history, the wrong side of the law, and the wrong side of the public,” she said when announcing plans to reinstate the rules.

The move came just one day after Anna Gomez was confirmed as a commissioner, giving Democrats a 3-2 majority at the FCC. The commission had been in a 2-2 gridlock while Joe Biden’s first nominee, Gigi Sohn, spent months awaiting confirmation before withdrawing from consideration in March 2023, citing harassment by lobbyists.

The commission will vote on the proposal at its October 19 open meeting. If approved, it will go up for public comment.

#broadbandlive

Experts Disagree on Net Neutrality Legal Ground

The Supreme Court has shown less deference to federal agencies in recent years, a BBLO panel heard.

Published

2 months ago

September 27, 2023

Jake Neenan

Screenshot of the event on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON, September 27, 2023 – Experts disagreed at a Broadband Breakfast Live Online event on Wednesday whether reinstituted Federal Communications Commission rules on net neutrality would survive legal challenges.

The FCC announced on Tuesday that it is looking to reinstate its 2015 net neutrality regulations, which involve categorizing broadband internet as a Title II service under the Communications Act of 1934. That would give the commission more muscle to regulate the industry, on par with its authority over telephone companies.

In particular, the commission is looking to prevent carriers from throttling or increasing users’ speed depending on the site they want to access.

The move survived legal scrutiny in 2016, when the D.C. Court of Appeals held the agency had the authority to classify technologies under the act as it saw fit. The Supreme Court would ultimately refuse to hear the case and let the D.C. ruling stand.

Berin Szoka, president of policy think tank TechFreedom, said Wednesday the legal landscape has changed since then, with a conservative majority on the Supreme Court that is more willing to tell federal agencies they are overstepping their boundaries.

“In the last six years, the ground has shifted very significantly,” he said.

He pointed to a dissent from then-D.C. Circuit judge Brett Kavanaugh when the court refused to rehear the net neutrality case. Kavanaugh, now part of a conservative majority on the Supreme Court, argued the FCC’s move to reclassify broadband was too drastic for it to do without explicit authorization from Congress.

“That was a dissent in 2017. That’s now the Court’s majority position,” he said, referring to the so-called major questions doctrine. Under the doctrine, the Supreme Court has ruled in recent years that federal agencies cannot enact policies that address major economic or political questions without explicit congressional authorization, giving agencies less authority to regulate as they see fit.

Stephanie Joyce, chief of staff and senior vice president of the Computer & Communications Industry Association, a tech trade group, said the doctrine might not apply to the FCC’s action at all.

She compared net neutrality rules to the EPA’s attempt to transition power plants to clean energy sources, which the Supreme Court nixed under the doctrine.

The EPA had not taken such a step before, she said, making it a bigger change in regulation than the FCC’s reclassification of broadband. That and other technology reclassifications have precedent at the commission, she said, including both the 2015 rules and a 1998 reclassification of DSL technology.

“I’m not sure the major questions doctrine is going to carry the day here,” she said.

Chip Pickering, CEO of another tech trade group, INCOMPAS, agreed that “there’s a lot of uncertainty” about how the Supreme Court would treat a challenge net neutrality rules from the FCC. But he said that a gridlocked Congress has little chance of enacting wider regulation on internet providers.

“Title II has, so far, been the only authority that’s been upheld on net neutrality,” he said. “And we have to act now.”

FCC commissioners will vote on whether to put up the proposed rules for public comment on October 19, barring a government shutdown.

Our Broadband Breakfast Live Online events take place on Wednesday at 12 Noon ET. Watch the event on Broadband Breakfast, or REGISTER HERE to join the conversation.

BREAKING NEWS SESSION! Wednesday, September 27 – What Happens Next on Net Neutrality?

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel wasted no time in promulgating rules regarding network neutrality. With Anna Gomez’ confirmation as the elusive fifth commissioner, Democrats finally have a majority at the agency. The chairwoman has said that she will put forward proposed rules on the topic at the agency’s open meeting on October 19. The partisan-tinged topic is expected to largely be a return of the 2015 rules under the agency’s authority under Title II of the Communications Act. One day after Rosenworcel’s Tuesday speech on net neutrality – and one day before the item is publicly released – Broadband Breakfast will convene industry and civil society stakeholders in a discussion about What Happens Next?

Panelists

Chip Pickering, CEO, INCOMPAS
Stephanie Joyce, Chief of Staff and Senior Vice President Computer & Communications Industry Association
Joe Kane, Director, Broadband and Spectrum Policy, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation
David Zumwalt, CEO, WISPA: Broadband Without Boundaries
Berin Szoka, President, TechFreedom
Drew Clark (moderator), Editor and Publisher, Broadband Breakfast

Panelist resources:

FCC Looking to Reinstate Net Neutrality Rules, Broadband Breakfast, September 26, 2023
On the Cusp of Sea Change, Broadband Breakfast Examines the Net Neutrality Debate, Broadband Breakfast, May 11, 2021
D.C. Circuit’s Decision in Net Neutrality Case Likely to Open New Fronts of Attack Against FCC, by Drew Clark, Broadband Breakfast, October 7, 2019

Please note: The originally scheduled Broadband Breakfast Live Online event, on renewing the Affordable Connectivity Program, will now take place on October 11, 2023.

For nearly three decades, Chip Pickering has been at the forefront of every major telecommunications milestone. From his time as a Senate staffer on the Commerce Committee shaping the Telecommunications Act of 1996, to his role as a Member of Congress leading on tech issues and overseeing the transition to the commercial internet, to serving as CEO of the leading internet and competitive networks association advocating for more competition and innovation in our ever-evolving industry. Through his leadership at INCOMPAS, Pickering continues to be a trusted voice and a leading expert on important issues facing the tech and telecommunications industry.

Stephanie Joyce joined CCIA after decades in private practice representing technology companies and competitive carriers before state and federal administrative agencies and courts. She is an experienced advocate for procompetitive policy, including her advocacy for CCIA at the FCC on broadband deployment and Open Internet rules. Stephanie has also provided counsel to telecommunications companies, as well as CCIA, on privacy matters. Stephanie is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame, received her graduate degree from George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs, and her law degree from George Washington University Law School.

Joe Kane is director of broadband and spectrum policy at ITIF. Previously, he was a technology policy fellow at the R Street Institute, where he covered spectrum policy, broadband deployment and regulation, competition, and consumer protection. Earlier, Joe was a graduate research fellow at the Mercatus Center, where he worked on Internet policy issues, telecom regulation, and the role of the FCC.

David Zumwalt is CEO & CEO of WISPA – Broadband Without Boundaries.WISPA represents the interests of innovative, often small ISPs that provide fixed wireless, fiber and other connectivity solutions to consumers, businesses, first responders and community anchor institutions in the digital divide. Supported by a robust vendor and supplier ecosystem, these ISPs deliver primary broadband connectivity in traditionally underserved and unserved suburban, rural and tribal communities nationwide, with a growing subscriber base now reaching nine million Americans. Prior to WISPA he served as Chief Operating Officer of Broadband VI, a major Internet Service Provider in the US Virgin Islands. He also served as the Executive Director of the University of the Virgin Islands Research & Technology Park, an instrumentality of the USVI government formed to establish and grow a vibrant knowledge-based sector in the Territory’s economy. He also founded and served as Chairman and CEO of Dallas-based CNet, Inc., a leading provider of radio frequency (RF) engineering and operational support system software and services to the worldwide wireless communications industry, securing significant customer relationships in forty countries.

Berin Szoka serves as President of TechFreedom. Previously, he was a Senior Fellow and the Director of the Center for Internet Freedom at The Progress & Freedom Foundation. Before joining PFF, he was an Associate in the Communications Practice Group at Latham & Watkins LLP, where he advised clients on regulations affecting the Internet and telecommunications industries.

Breakfast Media LLC CEO Drew Clark has led the Broadband Breakfast community since 2008. An early proponent of better broadband, better lives, he initially founded the Broadband Census crowdsourcing campaign for broadband data. As Editor and Publisher, Clark presides over the leading media company advocating for higher-capacity internet everywhere through topical, timely and intelligent coverage. Clark also served as head of the Partnership for a Connected Illinois, a state broadband initiative