Government Watchdog Group Slams FCC Plans to Reinstate “Net Neutrality”

For Immediate Release                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Contact:  Kara Zupkus 224-456-0257

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted along party lines Thursday to move forward with plans to reinstate Title II rules on internet providers under the Communications Act of 1934. The 3-2 tally (under the lead of Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel with all three Democratic commissioners voting for the order) is the first step in classifying the internet as a common carrier service. The FCC put these onerous and unnecessary regulations on broadband providers between 2015 and 2017 before former Chairman Ajit Pai led the effort to eliminate them.

In response, Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) Director of Telecom Policy Johnny Kampis offered the following comments:

“Title II, or ‘net neutrality,’ continues to be ‘a solution that won’t work to a problem that doesn’t exist,’ as former FCC Chairman Ajit Pai framed it before helping to repeal the reclassification in 2017. The past six years have shown us that the hysteria from the left about the downfall of the internet did not come to pass. A Taxpayers Protection Alliance Foundation (TPAF) investigation found very few instances of throttling or blocking traffic by providers after the so-called net neutrality rules were removed.”

Broadband Investment

Kampis noted that “investment into broadband infrastructure previously dropped by 20 to 30 percent between 2011 and 2015 in the years that former President Barack Obama took office and then-FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski began discussing the Title II reclassification, which was ultimately passed under former Chairman Tom Wheeler. Investment increased after the FCC moved the classification of the internet back under Title I. U.S. Telecom – The Internet Association reported last year that 2021 saw a 20-year high of $86 billion for capital expenditures into the nation’s communications infrastructure.”

Rate Regulation

Many speculate that this maneuver by the FCC is a way to impose rate regulation on the internet.  That is clearly not needed because in a time of rampant inflation, broadband rates have actually fallen 12 percent since 2017, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index.

Speeds

Consumers can thank that increased investment for much faster speeds over the past five years. Ookla reports that since 2018, fixed broadband speeds have increased by 300 percent, from 94 Megabits per second to 270 Mbps, while mobile broadband speeds have jumped 570 percent, from 27.5 Mbps to 156.5 Mbps.

Closing the Digital Divide

“The light-handed touch by government has allowed innovation to flourish with providers using a variety of methods that include fiber, cable, wireless, fixed wireless and satellite to provide broadband coast-to-coast. Only about 2 percent of Americans now lack access to broadband due to the increased investment in fixed and wireless infrastructure. Bringing back Title II will surely slow efforts to close the high-speed internet gap by dropping investment in broadband once again.”

Kampis finished, “rather than stymie the effort to connect the rest of Americans with broadband with this misguided Title II quest, the FCC should instead help cut red tape and work to improve broadband mapping so that the $100 billion-plus in federal taxpayer dollars now being spent on high-speed internet can most efficiently and effectively be used.”

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Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to educating the public through the research, analysis and dissemination of information on the government’s effects on the economy.