Statement of FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai on New Evidence that President Obama's Plan to Regulate the Internet Harms Small Businesses and Rural Broadband Deployment

As I predicted in my dissent from the Federal Communications Commission’s Open Internet Order, “Today there are thousands of smaller Internet service providers -- wireless Internet service providers (WISPs), small-town cable operators, municipal broadband providers, electric cooperatives, and others -- that don’t have the means or the margins to withstand a regulatory onslaught. . . . Smaller, rural competitors will be disproportionately affected, and the FCC’s decision will diminish competition -- the best guarantor of consumer welfare.” Just last week, many small broadband operators declared under penalty of perjury that this is in fact the case -- that they are cutting back on investments because of the FCC’s decision. The FCC still has a chance to heed these calls and stay the effect of President Obama’s plan to regulate the Internet. But I doubt this will happen. That’s because moving forward with this plan isn’t about logic, the law, or marketplace facts. It’s about fulfilling a political imperative.