Bob Quinn

So, today is another “Day of Action” for network neutrality advocates across the United States. We are supporting today’s Day of Action just as we did last summer’s Day of Action. But also like last summer, we support real action – actual legislation from Congress that places the pillars of net neutrality into law and applies those pillars across the internet for the benefit of all consumers. We received criticism from a certain corner of this debate in 2017 for our support of the Day of Action and I expect we will hear from those same folks again today.

Over the past week, there has been a lot written about what happens to the internet assuming the Federal Communications Commission adopts the proposed order, circulated Nov 22, at its next scheduled open meeting. I would suggest that most of what has been written falls in the category of misinformation and rhetorical excess. I thought I might try something different and attempt to limit us to a discussion of facts. The short answer is, of course, that there will be no change in how your internet works after the order is adopted.

[C]ompanies that collect and use the most customer information on the internet are not the Internet service providers but other internet companies, including operating system providers, web browsers, search engines, and social media platforms. And the Federal Communications Commission rules had nothing – literally nothing – to do with these companies or their practices. Indeed, in fashioning the rules, the Tom Wheeler FCC gave consumers a false sense of security by limiting how ISPs – and ISPs alone – use internet data while knowing that other competitors in the internet ecosystem had access and freedom to use the same data across whatever platform the consumer used to access the internet.

AT&T’s approach, which is to focus on the nature of the data and have a consistent framework on collection, use and sharing, was actually the Obama Administration policy for nearly eight years until the Wheeler FCC did a sudden about-face. Hopefully, this week’s action by Congress gets us back on the path to a more rational and consumer-friendly framework. I am also hopeful that facts actually work their way back into the debate.

March 30, the Federal Communications Commission circulated a drastically different vision for the Business Data Services marketplace [than what was seen during the Wheeler FCC]. On the heels of the largest data collection in the history of the FCC, the order proposes a data- and economics-driven regulatory approach that best reflects the level of competition that exists today (though the market is likely significantly more competitive than even this data – from four years ago – reflects).

The proposal appears to eliminate outdated regulations that hinder competitive markets, and proposes a rational regulatory framework where competition has yet to take hold. Reforming outdated regulations is not only a key component of economic growth, but some economists argue that it is the most powerful tool for incenting investment and increasing productivity. The BDS rules will finally evolve to reflect the increased level of competition and will encourage incremental fiber investment as the Pai FCC begins the process of delivering on regulatory reform promises made by the Trump Administration.