FCC's Wheeler Sez Net Neutrality 'Not Rate Regulation'Tool

Ajit Pai

Disagreements between Federal Communication Commission commissioners over the FCC’s net neutrality rules flared up on Tuesday at a Senate appropriations hearing, according to The Hill.

Republican Commissioner Ajit Pai said he believed that the panel should not provide funds for the agency to implement the rules, which allow the commission to regulate Internet providers as a utility.
“The commission will spend a lot of money and time applying regulations that are wasteful and unnecessary and that are already proving harmful to the American public,” he said.

Pai also repeated his argument that the order allows the agency to regulate the rates companies can charge for services.

Tom Wheeler

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, a Democrat, also appeared before the Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee, saying he hoped that someone would force the agency to confront the issue.

“Our goal is not to have rate regulation,” and the 201b interpretation that some people have said this gives us some kind of ex post authority, I would like to be able to make it clear that it is not a rate-regulation tool,” he said.

Wheeler demurred when asked whether the rule would allow the FCC to regulate the so-called interconnection rates Internet providers negotiate with the companies that run the backbone of the Internet.

The FCC chairman also declined to estimate the litigation costs associated with the net neutrality order. He said that any litigation would be handled by the agency internally, rather than by hiring an expensive outside appellate lawyer like former Solicitor General Theodore Olson.

The rules are expected to go through what could be years of court challenges.

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