FCC commissioners should continue to “keep our eyes...
FCC commissioners should continue to “keep our eyes open” for evidence of broadband provider actions that harm consumers, Commissioner Mike O'Rielly said in an interview for C-SPAN’s The Communicators, adding that “I don’t want to regulate in the future what…
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may happen.” The interview is set to appear online Friday afternoon and on C-SPAN at 6:30 p.m. EDT Saturday. Commissioners should likewise “keep our eyes open” for any emergence of an Internet fast lane, but “it’s early on in the equation,” O'Rielly said. He said his own conversations with broadband providers indicate that they don’t intend to fundamentally change their policies in the wake of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit’s Jan. 14 ruling that largely struck down the FCC’s 2010 net neutrality rules. The FCC should absolutely follow up on “legitimate harms,” but “right now we're kind of regulating a guessing game,” O'Rielly said. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler plans to justify the net neutrality NPRM using Section 706, which O'Rielly has said could lead to unintended consequences, particularly opening the door to possible future FCC action on cybersecurity and edge providers. The FCC’s authority on cybersecurity is “very limited” under the Communications Act, but a broader interpretation of Section 706 could lead the commission to expand its regulatory authority on the issue, he said.