FCC Moving to Reclassify Broadband as a Title II Service, Wheeler Tells CES
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler confirmed publicly at CES Wednesday the FCC will vote on a net neutrality order at its Feb. 26 open meeting. In a session with CEA President Gary Shapiro, Wheeler indicated the FCC will reclassify broadband as a Title II service, while forbearing from all but sections 202 and 208 of the Communications Act title. The rules will prohibit blocking and throttling while not requiring carriers to file tariffs, Wheeler told a standing room only crowd in a large room at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
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Wheeler said the FCC will create a “gold standard” for Internet regulation, while welcoming input from Congress. “I’m not going to get into the details of what our paid prioritization policy is,” Wheeler said. “There are instances where priority makes a whole lot of sense.” He said as a federal official he has access to networks during times of emergencies and that is a reasonable case of prioritization. But companies with “deep pockets” shouldn't be able to buy priority access, he said.
Shapiro asked Wheeler about net neutrality less than five minutes into his annual public discussion with the chairman of the FCC. “It’s been an interesting process over the last year,” Wheeler said. Wheeler said as an investor he saw firsthand the effect of networks being closed. The focus all along has been to restore the 2010 rules, he said. But even before President Barack Obama weighed in last year, it became clear that the best approach was to reclassify broadband, Wheeler said. “Title II has always been something on the table,” he said. Carriers have continued to make investments in their networks, to pay record prices in the AWS-3 auction, despite the Obama comments, Wheeler said.
“It became obvious that commercially reasonable could be interpreted as what is reasonable to the ISPs, not what is reasonable to the consumer,” Wheeler said. “That’s the wrong question and the wrong answer.” The important thing is guaranteeing consumers and innovators still have access to the Internet, he said.
Wheeler said small ISPs had been to the FCC to encourage the commission to reclassify broadband. “Have they read the whole Title II?” Shapiro asked to a laugh from the crowd. Wheeler joked that before Last Week Tonight host John Oliver compared him to a dingo on his HBO show last year he “honestly didn’t know what a dingo was.” He learned it’s a feral animal in Australia.
Wheeler also said the FCC is still on target to hold a TV incentive auction in early 2016. He said he remains “disappointed” in broadcasters' move to delay the auction. Wheeler said he hopes a broadcaster challenge to the auction rules will be argued in March and decided in May or June.
Reaction started almost soon as the session ended. “To the extent Chairman Wheeler is suggesting that mobile broadband is or ever has been subject to Title II, he is simply wrong,” said Mobile Future Chairman Jonathan Spalter in an emailed statement. “While Congress expressly subjected mobile voice services to a streamlined version of Title II, it never did so with respect to mobile broadband Internet access -- to the contrary, Congress (in Section 332(c)) expressly barred the Commission from treating private mobile services such as broadband to common carrier regulation, and the FCC has never before proposed to ignore this express statutory directive.”