Doyle, Pai Clash on Whether Net Neutrality Draft Just Return to Business as Usual

House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Mike Doyle,​ D-Pa., told a New America conference FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s net neutrality proposal won’t just roll back rules to before the 2015 regulations, it will mean “turning the clock back to zero.” Pai is wrong that getting rid of the rules will mean “business as usual” for the internet, Doyle said. At around the same time Tuesday, an anti-Title II panel was held (see 1712050035). Pai made the opposite point to Doyle in a speech to an International Institute of Communications meeting in Washington.

“When you cut through the legal terms and technical jargon, it’s very simple,” Pai said, according to written remarks. “The plan will bring back the same policy framework in the United States that governed the Internet for most of it existence -- from 1996 until 2015.” In 2015, the FCC "scrapped the tried-and-true, light-touch regulation of the Internet and replaced it with heavy-handed micromanagement" and the draft order reverses that approach, which has been harmful to the economy, Pai said.

“The chairman, like so many other people these days, is dealing in alternative facts,” Doyle alleged. The rules approved two years ago “were direct responses to actions taken by ISPs to limit, impede or interfere with consumers’ broadband experience,” he said. “Actions by the ISPs are the reason we have net neutrality rules at all.” When the FCC first started looking at net neutrality, some ISPs wanted to block Wi-Fi as a theft of service, Doyle said. “Again and again, we’ve seen ISPs blocking new services and applications that compete with them or in any way threaten their business model.” The threat of eliminating the rules is bigger for smaller players than big companies like Facebook and Google, he said.

Doyle said members of the House are collecting signatures on a letter asking for a delay of the planned vote on the rules (see 1712010045), but some members have been under pressure from ISPs not to sign. About 40 have signed, he said. “We’d love to get over 100 signatures on that letter before we present it,” he said. The FCC didn’t comment on Doyle’s remarks. Meanwhile, Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., said in a news release Tuesday that they will urge Pai to drop the proposal, during a Wednesday call with reporters. Also on the call will be former Chairman Tom Wheeler and Jon Sallet, general counsel when the rules were approved. Sallet will discuss litigation after the vote.

Others at the New America conference also opposed the Pai draft.

The internet has been a “godsend” for Hispanics, allowing them to start new businesses, tell their stories and organize politically, said former Commissioner Gloria Tristani, with the National Hispanic Media Coalition. The open internet is “a basic civil right,” she said. “What absolutely astounds me … is how this commission appears to be ready, willing and able to abandon any statutory responsibility they have to consumers.” Even the rules left in place on transparency are significantly weakened compared, she said. The FCC is “throwing consumers to the dogs,” she said.

The regulator plans to largely scrap the rules for one reason, said Incompas General Counsel Angie Kronenberg: The rules are “a threat to the large ISPs, the large ISPs who dominate the broadband delivery market, who are monopolies.” Consumers want competition, she said. “We love it that our internet has gotten faster,” she said. “We love it that we have the opportunity to save money, that I don’t have to subscribe to Comcast’s video package.”

Economist Hal Singer, the “token apologist” for the rules on the panel, said Pai was right to propose an end the partial ban on paid prioritization and the general conduct standard. The previous order admitted in a footnote that some applications, like telemedicine, could benefit from priority delivery, Singer said. The order created an exemption for priority arrangements but only if deployed by ISPs, he said. The FCC “perversely … encouraged vertical integration by ISPs into real-time apps,” he said. “Why would we ever want it to be dominated by the ISPs themselves?” Singer has concerns about the draft order’s reliance on antitrust law to police net neutrality. “Discrimination is not a violation under the antitrust laws,” he said. Antitrust law likely won’t be useful except in the case of the most egregious violations, he said.

Net Neutrality Notebook

NTCA urged the FCC not to "undermine or abdicate" its "authority" and legal mandates "to ensure seamless connectivity among all Americans, preserve and advance universal service in a broadband world, and encourage" advanced telecom deployment and availability for all. A "carefully structured" role can ensure "underlying operators interconnect and exchange data in a manner that promotes broadband availability and universal service objectives that are the distinct province and responsibility of this Commission under federal law," said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 17-108 on meetings with aides to all FCC members other than Brendan Carr. "This role is critical regardless of the classification." The Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council and National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters backed repeal of Title II broadband classification but suggested Section 706 authority to head off violations of net neutrality principles, or issue a Further NPRM or use other means to develop a "backup plan" to FTC enforcement, said a filing on meetings with Pai, Clyburn and Carr, their aides, and aides to Mike O'Rielly and Jessica Rosenworcel.

USTelecom blasted Google and Amazon Tuesday, after reports surfaced that Google is blocking access to YouTube on Amazon’s Echo Show device because Amazon refuses to carry Google products like Chromecast and Google Home. “Broadband ISPs are committed to providing an open internet for their customers, including protections like no content blocking or throttling,” said USTelecom CEO Jonathan Spalter. “Seems like some of the biggest internet companies can’t say the same. Ironic, isn’t it?” The companies didn’t comment on USTelecom's statement. “We’ve been trying to reach agreement with Amazon to give consumers access to each other's products and services,” a Google spokesman emailed. “We hope we can reach an agreement to resolve these issues soon.”

CTIA representatives said they met with aides to all the FCC commissioners except Carr to urge approval of the draft net neutrality order. The order “will restore the bipartisan light touch regulatory framework that existed since the inception of Internet service until 2015,” said a Tuesday filing in docket 17-108. “The Draft Order will help incent greater investment into mobile broadband networks, provide mobile wireless providers the flexibility to respond to competition and consumer demand with innovative products and services, and ensure that the U.S. continues to lead the world in mobile wireless services.”

Most of the more than 22 million net neutrality comments filed at the FCC likely came in through clicks on websites, the Technology Policy Institute said in an analysis Tuesday. “We found that 90 percent of comments in a sample of the data could be identified based on 25 unique phrases, implying that they were sent as part of a form letter campaign.” TPI said this “avalanche” of filings cannot be navigated or interpreted using human labor alone. “Machine learning tools are uniquely suited to navigating and interpreting such a large amount of information. Their use, however, implies a new set of problems and rules of engagement for regulatory proceedings in a digital world.”