Wheeler Defends Proposed Net Neutrality Rules at NARUC
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler struck back against “ill-informed” criticisms that his draft net neutrality order would institute a 1930s-level regulatory structure on broadband. He said during NARUC’s winter meeting in Washington Tuesday that his order would use a “modern version” of Communications Act Title II. The FCC is expected to vote 3-2 Feb. 26 for the net neutrality order, which would reclassify broadband as a Title II service. The draft order would forebear from 27 of Title II’s 38 sections, which Wheeler said was almost four times the seven Title II sections that the FCC forbore from when it crafted mobile voice rules under Title II and Telecom Act Section 332 following enactment of the 1996 Telecom Act. CTIA, where Wheeler was president when he backed forbearance of regulatory sections in Title II for wireless carriers, has said it will join other industry groups in suing the FCC over the new net neutrality rules (see 1502130049). CTIA President Meredith Baker is to speak during a Wednesday NARUC session.
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Title II reclassification of broadband “does not contain rate regulation, it does not contain tariffing, it does not contain unbundling,” Wheeler said. “That’s the troika that defines utility regulation. ... The reality is that the tools for utility regulation are absent from our activities” on net neutrality, he said. The new net neutrality rules would only impose Title II sections that would prohibit blocking of legal content, throttling of legal content and paid prioritization -- three issues on which there is bipartisan agreement, Wheeler said. He commended Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., for “focusing on these issues” in his proposed net neutrality legislation. That legislation has stalled ahead of the FCC’s net neutrality vote, and Thune has said he plans to revive negotiations on that legislation the first week of March (see 1502120059).
FCC Commissioners Michael O’Rielly and Ajit Pai have opposed Wheeler’s net neutrality order ahead of the Feb. 26 vote, part of a recent pattern of opposition from the commissioners that Wheeler acknowledged Tuesday. Wheeler said he and O’Rielly “don’t agree on much, but we do agree to try and find what we agree on,” saying O’Rielly is “one of the most thoughtful people that I work with” at the FCC. O’Rielly has pitched instituting “adequate controls and deterrents” for the Lifeline program ahead of any larger revamp of the program (see 1502130053). Wheeler said he believes the Lifeline program requires changes that come from bipartisan consensus, saying the FCC expanded the program during President George W. Bush’s administration to include wireless service, but that the expansion didn’t include appropriate oversight.
Wheeler said the FCC isn’t trying to violate the historically local nature of 911 oversight in activities like its IP transition rulemaking, which explores possible rules for backup battery power for 911 services, or its work related to the April 2014 multistate 911 outage. When technology evolves in a way that makes 911 issues an interstate problem, the FCC and state agencies should “share responsibility,” Wheeler said: “We want to make sure that the carriers are recognizing their responsibility” to ensure 911 service quality.
Pai also spoke at NARUC on 911 issues, discussing his work to correct problems at hotels with direct dialing 911. Most major hotel chains have now agreed to address the issue, so by year-end it will “no longer be a problem” for most customers, Pai said Monday. He also highlighted hotels’ progress on the issue late last month (see 1501230039). Pai said Monday that similar direct dialing issues continue to exist at the FCC, which is problematic because the commission should “lead by example.”