Commentary

GOP Questions Wheeler On Net Neutrality Turnaround

Last week, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler unveiled plans to declare  broadband service a utility, in order to enact “the strongest open internet protections” in the agency's history.

The news left many net neutrality proponents declaring victory, which isn't surprising considering that they have long urged the agency to reclassify broadband service. Advocates have said for a long time that reclassification is the best way to subject broadband providers to the kinds of common-carrier rules that require telephone companies to put through all phone calls.

But opponents of new regulations, including some GOP lawmakers, aren't happy about Wheeler's decision. In the last few days, two separate panels in the House and Senate have launched investigations into Wheeler's new position -- which marks a turnaround from a proposal he issued last May.

That earlier proposal would have prohibited broadband providers from blocking or degrading traffic, but allowed them to charge content companies higher fees for faster delivery of their material -- provided that the deals were “commercially reasonable.”

Many advocates sharply condemned that proposal, arguing that paid fast lanes would disadvantage small companies, start-ups and even nonprofits, by making it relatively harder for them to reach an audience online.

Last November, President Obama chimed in by publicly calling on the FCC to abandon any rules that allowed for fast lanes, and instead reclassify broadband as a utility service.

Now, some GOP lawmakers are questioning whether Obama exerted improper influenced on Wheeler. “I am concerned that outside undue pressures may have led you to this decision,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) wrote to Wheeler on Monday. “In particular, my concern is the apparent pressure exerted on you by the White House.”

Johnson is asking Wheeler to explain his turnaround on reclassifying broadband, and to provide correspondence between his office and the White House from November through last week.

For his part, Wheeler says that he revised his proposal as a result of concerns raised by commenters. “Originally, I believed that the FCC could assure Internet openness through the application of a 'commercial reasonableness' test to determine appropriate behavior of ISPs,” he said today in a speech delivered at the Silicon Flatirons Center in Boulder.

“After listening to countless consumers and innovators, however, I became concerned that the relatively untested 'commercially reasonable' standard might be subsequently interpreted to mean what was reasonable for the ISP’s commercial arrangements,” Wheeler added. “It was a possibility that was unacceptable.”

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