New FCC chairman calls net neutrality rules a “mistake”

Pai was part of an MWC panel of heavyweights that included Andris Ansip, vice president in charge of the European Commission’s Single Digital Market initiative, Stephane Richard, chairman and CEO of Orange Group, France’s telecom goliath, and Mike Fries, president and CEO of Liberty Global, a Europe-based multinational telecommunications company. It’s his strongest statement on the issue since being appointed to the top spot by President Trump last month.

The new FCC chairman, Ajit Pai, said Tuesday that AT&T’s merger with Time Warner will not require a review from the FCC because the deal isn’t expected to include a transfer of any broadcast licenses, according to USA Today. “And uncertainty is the enemy of growth”.

Pai has been a constant critic of broadband regulations imposed by the FCC during the tenure of his predecessor in the chairman’s seat, Barack Obama appointee Tom Wheeler.

Pai believes otherwise: “The more hard government makes the business case for deployment, the less likely it is that broadband providers big and small will invest the billions of dollars needed to connect consumers with digital opportunity”.

The new Republican chairman, speaking just two days after the two-year anniversary of the landmark Open Internet Order, pledged to approach regulation with a “light-touch” approach.

As additional evidence that “light touch” regulation is working, Pai points to the commission’s approval of zero-rating schemes – this, he says, is exactly why all four carriers are now offering unlimited data plans.

The FCC has backed off its inquiries into three “zero rating” programs, in which wireless companies let consumers visit websites and stream content from certain companies without counting against data caps.

“The US is taking a fresh look at our regulatory approach”, said Pai, indicating that he aims to move fast given that he has only been in the job for five weeks.

No one would argue with that point. He anxious that smaller Internet Service Providers (ISPs) would not be able to offer free data, and thus would eventually be weeded out.

In addition to outlining potential benefits for consumers, AT&T and Time Warner also claimed that their merger won’t affect competition because the companies “do not compete with each other in any significant respect”.

“The best evidence of the wisdom of our new approach is what happened afterward”, he said. He, too, was at the Barcelona conference, and told Bloomberg on Tuesday that “it is highly unsafe to let four companies, which is basically what we have in the United States, four internet service providers, to determine who will be able to get on their networks”.

“It seems to me the lobbyists are winning out over core principles here”, he added.