What’s Next for Net Neutrality? Fight On!!!
By Tom Wheeler
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has just made its contribution to the Trump Administration’s Reverse Robin Hood Policy. By walking away from its responsibility over an open internet, the Trump FCC has favored four big companies over millions of American consumers and tens of thousands of innovators and entrepreneurs.
These four companies — Comcast, Charter, AT&T and Verizon — provide 75 percent of America’s residential internet connectivity, usually as a monopoly. In recent years, the revenues, profits and stock prices of these companies have soared.
The decision by the Trump FCC on December 14 not only eliminated protections for those of us that rely on the internet, but also for the first time in the agency’s 83-year history the FCC washed its hands over responsibility for an essential national network. That’s right, the Trump FCC has said they won’t do anything to oversee the most important network of the 21st century! The official line is that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) — an agency with much less power and no network expertise — can do the job.
A September 12, 2013 Washington Post article described how getting the FCC to walk away from its responsibilities like this was the network monopolies’ grand plan. “Here’s how the telecom industry plans to defang their regulators” the headline announced. “[T]elecom giants including Verizon, AT&T and Comcast have launched multiple efforts to shift regulation of their broadband business to other agencies that don’t have nearly as much power as the FCC,” the article explained. On December 14, that strategy paid off.
The same week as the Trump FCC’s decision, a University of Maryland survey found 83 percent of Americans opposed the Trump FCC’s plan — including 75 percent of Republicans. So why would the Republican FCC, backed by the Republican Congress, choose to side with four huge companies over 83 percent of Americans?
It’s time for a reckoning.
It’s time for the 83 percent to speak out in the only way the Republicans and their allies understand — at the polls.
But that speaking out can’t wait for November 2018. Already the lobbyists for the networks are pushing Congress — both Republicans and Democrats — to pass legislation that would permanently gut the FCC’s authority, making it impossible for another more pro-consumer FCC to reverse the Trump FCC.
This legislative move is possible only because the Republicans control the Congress. Unfortunately, with the Republicans in control, any such “solution” will mean giving the monopoly networks what they want.
Here’s what is at stake. The Trump FCC’s decision won’t be final until the appeals court reviews the decision (which will be months from now). Right now, the 2015 Open Internet Rule remains the law of the land. Any new legislation other than codifying the 2015 rules (which the Republicans will never allow) would therefore be a retreat from existing protections.
Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) and Representative Mike Doyle (D-PA) have indicated they plan to ask Congress to overrule the Trump FCC’s decision and keep the 2015 protections in place. Here is something worth supporting: making Republicans stand before their voters and explain why they choose the monopolies over their constituents.
It is time for the 83 percent to speak out to their senators and representatives. It is time to flood the Congress with phone calls telling your elected official to support repeal of the Trump FCC’s destruction of the Obama-era protections for your internet service. Let them know that nothing short of reversing the Trump FCC’s decision will be acceptable and that any so-called “compromise” is simply choosing the monopolies over the people.
