U.S. FCC Chairman gets ready to tackle ‘net neutrality’

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“The Federal Communications Commission’s new Republican leadership has rescinded a determination that AT&T and Verizon Wireless violated net neutrality rules with paid data cap exemptions,” Jon Brodkin reports for Ars Technica. “The FCC also rescinded several other Wheeler-era reports and actions.”

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“The FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau sent letters to AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile USA notifying the carriers ‘that the Bureau has closed this inquiry. Any conclusions, preliminary or otherwise, expressed during the course of the inquiry will have no legal or other meaning or effect going forward,’” Brodkin reports. “The FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau also sent a letter to Comcast closing an inquiry into the company’s Stream TV cable service, which does not count against data caps.”

“Pai opposed Wheeler’s zero-rating investigation, saying that free data offerings are ‘popular among consumers precisely because they allow more access to online music, videos, and other content free of charge.’ He has also vowed to overturn the FCC’s net neutrality rules and hasn’t committed to enforcing them while they remain in place,” Brodkin reports. “‘While this is just a first step, these companies, and others, can now safely invest in and introduce highly popular products and services without fear of commission intervention based on newly invented legal theories,’ Republican FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly said today.”

“Pai issued a statement of his own, saying the FCC’s previous leadership ‘released a series of controversial orders and reports’ during ‘the waning days’ of the Obama administration,” Brodkin reports. “‘In some cases, commissioners were given no advance notice whatsoever of these midnight regulations,’ Pai said. ‘In other cases, they were issued over the objection of two of the four commissioners. And in all cases, their release ran contrary to the wishes expressed by the leadership of our congressional oversight committees. These last-minute actions, which did not enjoy the support of the majority of commissioners at the time they were taken, should not bind us going forward. Accordingly, they are being revoked.’ Yesterday, Pai announced a new initiative to publicly release the text of rulemakings before they are voted on, something he unsuccessfully pushed Wheeler to do.”

Read more in the full article here.