Chairman Pai defends repeal of net neutrality in front of skeptical Wilmington (DE) tech workers

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai was in Wilmington (DE), defending his office's controversial decision in 2017 to dismantle the country's network neutrality rule. While speaking at a co-working space, Chairman Pai called the recent bill to reinstate net neutrality by Sen Ed Markey (D-MA) and others an "unfortunate political distraction." He said the 2017 "market-based" rule change has unleashed new investments in telecom infrastructure, though it is an assertion that has been disputed by many in the industry. "The last year and a half of experience that we have disproves some of the predictions that were made," he said. "I still have on my desk some of the predictions that said, 'This is the end of the internet.'"  Many of the DE tech workers listening were skeptical of – or even disagreed with – the data he presented. Adam Salamon, founder of Pression Inc., said internet infrastructure spending has dropped during the year since the repeal of net neutrality. That occurred despite an extra injection of potential capital from federal corporate tax cuts, passed at the end of 2017, he said. 

Responding to critics' main concern, Chairman Pai stated declaratively that a company cannot pay an internet provider to speed up its own website and slow down a competitor's. But he did state – in what might telegraph a future regulatory action – that Google charges publishers to speed up mobile service to their pages. "Google makes a ton of money every year from getting publishers that are struggling to pay them money for the faster delivery of their content," he said. "Is that anti-competitive? Is that pro-competitive? I'm not sure, but what I will say is that it's important for the Federal Trade Commission to evaluate all of those practices on a level playing field."