FCC Responds to Court: Net Neutrality is Still Solution in Search of Nonexistent Problem

For Immediate Release
October 5, 2020
Contact: Grace Morgan
(202-855-4380)

Washington, D.C. – Today, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai provided a preview of the FCC’s response to the DC Circuit Court regarding its narrow remand on specific issues related to the Restoring Internet Freedom Order. Last fall, the overwhelming majority of the Order, which rolled back the Obama era FCC’s attempt to impose so-called “net neutrality” rules, was upheld by the Court, with specific items related to its impact on public safety, pole attachments, and the Lifeline subsidized access program being kicked back to the Commission for further elaboration. The FCC’s response will make clear that the decision to return internet service providers (ISPs) to the light-touch regulatory framework (which preceded the net neutrality rules for two decades) will not have any significant or detrimental impact on public safety or the FCC’s ability to regulate pole attachments and administer the Lifeline program. Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) President David Williams offered the following comments:

“From day one of the net neutrality saga, imposing Title II regulations on the internet has always been a solution in search of a problem. For two decades the internet flourished into what we know it as today under the light-touch framework established by a bipartisan consensus in 1996. The idea that simply returning the FCC’s governance of broadband providers back to what brought the internet into the daily lives of millions of Americans in the first place would have some sort of detrimental impact on public safety is grasping at imaginary straws. The last three years, and this year in particular, have proven that the hype around net neutrality was nothing more than this generation’s Y2K faux hysteria. TPA is delighted to see FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and commissioners O’Rielly and Carr standing firm on their foundation of facts.”