Industry Stakeholders Urge FCC To Make Permanent Its Net Neutrality Small Business Exemption
Several broadband providers and industry associations urged the FCC to permanently adopt its temporary small business exemption from enhanced transparency requirements, in comments posted Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in docket 14-28. Most commenters also asked the commission to expand its…
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current definition under the exemption of a small broadband provider -- 100,000 or fewer broadband connections -- to the definition established by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) of 500,000 connections or fewer. In a comment posted in the docket Wednesday by the SBA's Office of Advocacy, the agency encouraged the FCC to continue the exemption and to use the SBA's existing size standards to determine the appropriate small business threshold. The agency said the enhanced requirements "are not feasible for small broadband providers, particularly small rural providers, and may ultimately degrade the quality of service that consumers receive." SBA also said in its comments that small businesses are typically unable to absorb increased operating costs to the same extent as larger businesses, and before the FCC requires small providers to comply with the new rules, "it should first attempt to mitigate the cost of compliance for small entities and determine whether such costs are justified in light of consumer benefits." The Wireless Internet Service Providers Association (WISPA), along with the Competitive Carriers Association (CCA) also urged the FCC to make permanent the exemption, and to raise its small business threshold. WISPA said making the exemption permanent has "unanimous" support. "It is rare for the record in any commission proceeding to reflect unanimous support for a regulatory position, but that is the case here," the group said. CCA echoed WISPA's position, and urged the commission to modify the exemption requirements to apply to providers with either 1,500 or fewer employees or those with 500,000 or fewer broadband connections. The Alaska Telephone Association, American Cable Association and small broadband provider SouthernLINC joined WISPA, CCA and the SBA in submitting comments in favor of the exemption.