Net Neutrality Order Already Hurting US Economy, Pai Aide Tells European Conference
The FCC’s February net neutrality order threatens to reverse decades of light-handed regulation in the U.S., Brendan Carr, an aide to FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai, on Wednesday told attendees at a conference in Brussels sponsored by think tank New Direction.…
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“There’s been a dramatic turn towards heavy-handed regulation of the Internet -- one that has injected tremendous uncertainty into the market and already resulted in a substantial decrease in capital spending by U.S. broadband providers,” Carr said, according to remarks posted by the FCC. Carr cited a recent report by the Progressive Policy Institute, which found that capital expenditures by the largest wireline ISPs plunged 12 percent in the first half of 2015, compared with the first half of 2014, while expenditures overall fell 8 percent. “This decrease represents billions of dollars in lost investment and tens of thousands of lost jobs,” he said. “And it cannot be dismissed as part of a normal fluctuation in spending. Broadband providers’ capital expenditures have fallen on a year-over-year basis only twice before: following the dot-com bust in 2000 and the Great Recession in 2008.” Anecdotal evidence shows that small ISPs, including some wireless ISPs, are also curbing their investments in their networks, he said.