CEI Commends FCC Plan to Roll Back Net Neutrality Regulations Threatening Internet Freedom

Today, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai outlined plans for rolling back harmful net neutrality regulations that hamper Internet freedom and consumer access to more innovative options and products.

The Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Ryan Radia said the following about the announcement:

CEI welcomes Federal Communication Commission Chairman Pai’s plan to end harmful public utility regulation of Internet providers. Undoing the Obama-era net neutrality rules that threaten free speech online is critical to protecting a free and open Internet. The FCC’s 2015 Internet regulations must be eliminated in order to promote competition and innovation in the broadband market, which will ultimately serve American consumers with more choices and better products at lower prices.

Earlier this week, Radia said the following about the ongoing net neutrality debate:

Over the past decade, the FCC has sought to transform itself into the Internet’s regulator in spite of a clear directive to the contrary from Congress. The rigid rules that now govern Internet providers forbid an array of business models that could benefit consumers, from prioritizing time-sensitive Internet traffic to cutting deals with Web startups to exempt them from data caps.

Unfortunately, rolling back these regulations will not end the fight over net neutrality. A never-ending game of regulatory ping pong where the winner changes every four or eight years serves no one. Resolving this battle will require Congress to rewrite the nation’s telecom laws, phasing out the FCC’s many functions that can be better sorted out by markets or courts. Otherwise, broadband providers will soon look and act like the old Ma Bell telephone monopoly: stagnant, entrenched, and anything but innovative.

For more on net neutrality regulations see the Technology and Telecommunications chapter in CEI’s Agenda for the 115th Congress.