Experts say Joe Biden's FCC would restore net neutrality, avoid price regulation

If Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden gets elected, policy experts expect him to choose a new Federal Communications Commission. The term of the current FCC Chairman Ajit Pai does not end until Jan 2023, but FCC chairmen typically exit the commission before a new president takes office. On the question of Biden's choice for chairman, Chris Lewis, president and CEO of public interest group Public Knowledge, says the conventional wisdom is that he would nominate someone with a lot of experience at the commission, which would start with Mignon Clyburn, former FCC commissioner and acting chair, and current Democratic FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel.

As for policy priorities under a Biden-led FCC, Lewis believes a top goal for any Democratic chair would be to reestablish the agency's authority over broadband in "whatever form that takes." Blair Levin, a former FCC chief of staff who now works as policy adviser at New Street Research, said recently that while he thinks that Democrats would try to move to classify internet service providers as Title II carriers, he does not believe that the classification in and of itself matters to investors, because he believes there was no indication that the rules passed in 2015 impacted investment, margins and profits.