Broadband rate regulation is inevitable under Title II

[Commentary] The one-two punch of redefining and then reclassifying broadband service will make it difficult for Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler to fulfill his promise and avoid broadband rate regulation. Title II requires the FCC to assure carrier rates are just, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory. In markets that the FCC claims are uncompetitive, this requires a searching inquiry to determine whether the rates in question are supported by costs -- an inquiry that has taken ten years in the relatively simple world of inmate telephone calls and will be immeasurably more complex when applied to broadband networks.

[Daniel Lyons is an associate professor at Boston College Law School]