Good News for Consumers, Innovators and Financial Markets

Thank you to the over four million Americans who participated in the Open Internet proceeding. Thanks to them, this decision on Internet openness was itself the most open proceeding in the history of the Federal Communications Commission. As a result, the FCC has taken an important step that should reassure consumers, innovators and the financial markets about the broadband future of our nation. Consumers now know that lawful content will not be blocked or their service throttled. Today’s action puts in place bright line rules to ban these practices outright.

Innovators now know they will have open access to consumers without worrying about pay-for-preference fast lanes. This, too, is a bright line rule to ban paid prioritization. Financial markets now know that rate regulation, tariffing and forced unbundling -- the old-style utility regulation -- has been superseded by a modernized regulatory approach that has already been demonstrated to work. The rules under which the wireless industry invested $300 billion to build a vibrant and growing business are the pro-investment model for the rules we adopted Feb 26. Today is a red letter day both for an Open Internet, and for a broadband future of investment and expansion.