California Will Have an Open Internet

At present, 34 states (and the District of Columbia) have introduced some kind of open internet legislation. The leading net neutrality law was passed in the nation’s most populous state, California, and follows the rules that the Federal Communications Commission overturned. California agreed to hold off on enforcing their new net neutrality law until the pre-emption question was answered by the court. That hold is now off: If you live in California, you will have an open internet. It remains to be seen whether California’s law becomes the de facto open internet law across the nation or whether it becomes one of many different net neutrality laws.

The House of Representatives passed legislation that repeals the FCC’s actions, but it has languished in the Senate, where the companies and their allies opposed it. Now the network companies face an interesting dilemma. Having received the deregulation they sought, the threat of conflicting state laws will send them to Congress to ask for a federal law that does what the FCC could not. But in the interim, the strong California law will become a de facto standard. If there is a debate in Congress, that will be the starting point.

[Wheeler is a former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission]