FCC Net Neutrality Rules Mean Less Investment in Networks, Pai Says
The FCC's February decision to reclassify broadband as a common carrier service was purely political and ignored how well the Internet has done under light-handed regulation, FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai said Thursday in a speech to the Bill of Rights…
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Institute’s Kansas Public Lecture in Wichita. ISPs are already spending billions of dollars less on their networks due to the new rules, he said in his remarks posted by the FCC Friday. The dynamic of what the FCC did can be simply stated, Pai said. “It means regulating broadband like the Ma Bell telephone monopoly of the 20th century or the railroads of the 19th century,” he said. “It means subjecting Internet service providers to pervasive public-utility regulation. It means putting the federal government at the center of the digital world.” The FCC’s moves on net neutrality are part of a broader administration agenda, Pai said. “It was about government control,” he said. Most people would celebrate a free-market approach to the Internet, he said. “But some disagree. They disdain a free-market approach to the Internet because they believe that every major sector of our economy should be subject to extensive government regulation. And in particular, they believe that the Internet is too big and too important not to be subject to government control.” Pai said when the FCC imposes rules on ISPs, it risks stifling investment in networks. “Broadband networks don’t have to be built,” he said. “Capital doesn’t have to be invested. Risks don’t have to be taken.” The evidence already shows lower investment, he said. “During the first six months of 2015, there was an 8 percent decrease in major U.S. broadband providers’ capital expenditures,” he said. “And numerous smaller broadband providers told the FCC earlier this year under penalty of perjury that the agency’s regulations were leading them to cut back on infrastructure investment and broadband deployment.” The rules can still reversed by a later FCC, Pai assured the audience. “I am still optimistic that these regulations’ days are numbered,” he said. “The longer that these rules are in effect, the clearer it will become that these regulations are harming competition and consumers.” Pai said his parents, who live in a small town in Kansas, have a “healthy skepticism of government.” He joked that when he got the call to be a commissioner three years ago his mother had questions. “Was being an FCC Commissioner a full-time job? Did it pay? If it didn’t work out, could I go back to being a partner at my law firm?” he said. “Thankfully, after more than three years as a commissioner, my mother is confident I won’t be moving back into my old room.”