Earlier today, the FCC chairman Tom Wheeler announced a new plan to reclassify both the internet and wireless carriers under the Title II of the Telecommunications Act. This will result in it being classified as a public utility and will make the internet free, fast, and open. As expected, not everyone is happy with this announced plan, especially as it seems that Net Neutrality has won. We have already received several comments and statements from internet service provides and carriers responding to the announcement, you can see them below and we will update this post if we receive more. We have divided up the responses in two categories, those against and those in support.
Support
T-Mobile:
2/ The Internet has become an invaluable platform for free expression and these rules would help preserve it for future generations.
— Policy (@policy) February 4, 2015
Against
Verizon
“Heavily regulating the Internet for the first time is unnecessary and counterproductive. It is unnecessary because all participants in the Internet ecosystem support an open Internet, and the FCC can address any harmful behavior without taking this radical step. Moreover, Congress is working on legislation that would codify open Internet rules once and for all. It is counterproductive because heavy regulation of the Internet will create uncertainty and chill investment among the many players — not just Internet service providers — that now will need to consider FCC rules before launching new services.”– Michael E. Glover, Verizon senior vice president and deputy general counsel, public policy and government affairs
AT&T
“We continue to believe that a middle ground exists that will allow us to safeguard the open Internet without risk to needed investment and years of legal uncertainty. We were able to find such a path in 2010, and will do our very best to seek such a path today. We also hope that proponents of Title II will consider that any FCC action taken on a partisan vote can be undone by a future commission in similar fashion, or may be declared invalid by the courts. The best way to ensure that open Internet protections, investment and innovation endure is for people of good faith to come together on a bipartisan basis for that purpose. We believe such an opportunity exists today.”-Jim Cicconi, AT&T Senior Executive Vice President-External and Legislative Affairs
