CEI Comments to the FCC in the matter of Framework For Broadband Internet Service

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Reclassifying the transmission component of broadband Internet access as a Title II telecommunications service would undermine the Commission’s statutory mission and harm consumers in several ways. First, it would discourage private investment in both broadband Internet networks and in networks yet to be imagined. Second, it would thwart the natural evolution of the dynamic telecommunications marketplace. Third, it would pave the way for a future Commission to regulate virtually every aspect of the Internet and digital communications in destructive and unforeseen ways.

It is no coincidence that America’s most vibrant communications platform, the Internet, has evolved largely free from regulatory intervention. As this proceeding illustrates, the greatest threat to the evolution of communications wealth in the United States comes not from broadband providers or content companies, but from the Commission itself.