Commissioners Pai, O'Rielly vow to gut network neutrality rules “as soon as possible”

The Federal Communications Commission's two Republican members, Commissioners Ajit Pai and Michael O'Rielly, told Internet service providers that they will get to work on gutting network neutrality rules "as soon as possible."

Commissioners Pai and O'Rielly sent a letter to five lobby groups representing wireless carriers and small ISPs; while the letter is mostly about plans to extend an exemption for small providers from certain disclosure requirements, the commissioners also said they will tackle the entire net neutrality order shortly after President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration on January 20. "[W]e will seek to revisit [the disclosure] requirements, and the Title II Net Neutrality proceeding more broadly, as soon as possible," they wrote, referring to the order that imposed net neutrality rules and reclassified ISPs as common carriers under Title II of the Communications Act. Commissioners Pai and O'Rielly noted that they "dissented from the Commission's February 2015 Net Neutrality decision, including the Order's imposition of unnecessary and unjustified burdens on providers."