Pai Sees Lightening Rules on Net Neutrality As a Boost to Broadband

Re-defining the internet as a common carrier inhibited broadband infrastructure investment, especially in rural areas, according to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. That’s why he  circulated among his colleagues a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking yesterday to seek comment on reversing the two claims of legal authority that underlay the 2010 and 2015 Open Internet Orders. He intends to release the draft text today and have the item up for a vote at the FCC’s next open meeting on May 18.

Pai addressed the future of so-called Net Neutrality at an event at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. yesterday. Pai wants to go back to a “light-touch regulatory framework for the internet,” saying that worked for decades. “Under this framework, the private sector invested about $1.5 trillion to build the networks that gave people high-speed access to the internet,” said Pai. Continue Reading