FCC Republicans Vote to Extend Transparency Waiver

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai has circulated an order waiving the FCC's Open Internet order's enhanced transparency requirements for smaller Internet service providers for five years and upping the trigger for that waiver to 250,000 subscribers or fewer. Not only that, but he already has two votes for the item in a three-person commission, which means it has effectively been approved pending casting of the third vote. That squares with legislation that passed in the House recently, as well as what then-Commissioner Pai reportedly pushed for when then FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler had circulated an item extending the waiver but leaving the trigger at 100,000 subs for fewer. The waiver expired in December, when the enhanced transparency requirement kicked in for all ISPs.