Throwing Shade at Title II with Forbearance Fear Mongering

[Commentary] As the groundswell for reclassifying broadband as a Title II telecommunications service and creating strong network neutrality rules grows, the arguments against reclassification have grown increasingly shrill and desperate. Most recently they have focused on “forbearance.”

For those of you not living all of your lives in the world of telecom law, forbearance is the process the Federal Communications Commission could use to decide that some pieces of Title II should not apply to broadband. As illustrated below, these arguments do not stand up to scrutiny. Of course, forbearance only matters after the FCC has reclassified broadband access as a Title II service. If nothing else, the fact that we are now debating how to apply Title II to broadband is a huge win for advocates of strong net neutrality rules.