Forbear From Section 201 To Keep No Rate Regulation Pledge, NCTA's Powell Writes
Despite FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s pledge that the draft net neutrality order wouldn't regulate rates, it preserves the agency’s ability to do that by not forbearing from Communications Act Section 201, NCTA President Michael Powell wrote in a blog post…
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Wednesday. “The Commission can convert its promises into reality quite simply by forbearing at least in part from section 201(b)’s authority to regulate charges,” Powell wrote. “If the FCC means what it says and is not intent on regulating rates … they need to take the bullets out of the proverbial gun.” The agency has said mobile has been under Title II and hasn't been subject to rate regulation. While Wheeler is pledging not to require carriers to file proposed rates with the commission for approval, “anyone will be permitted to file complaints about rates and the Commission will decide if those rates are ‘reasonable’ under their section 201 authority,” Powell wrote. “If they believe they are not [reasonable], then they will declare the rate ‘illegal.’ That is regulating rates no matter how you cut it and it is insincere to suggest otherwise.” Forty-three municipal broadband providers meanwhile urged the FCC in a joint letter posted in docket 14-28 Wednesday not to reclassify broadband. As smaller providers, they “do not have an incentive to harm the openness of the Internet, the ISPs said. Customers would switch to competitors if they were to engage in any business practices that interfere with their Internet experience, the filing said. None of the providers has “the market power to compel payments for unblocking, non-discriminatory treatment or paid prioritization services” because they “serve too few Internet subscribers to matter to edge providers such as Netflix, Amazon or Hulu,” the filing said.