FCC Chairman Wheeler on the Choices in the Network Neutrality Debate

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler returned to Ohio State University – this time focusing his remarks on the FCC’s recent network neutrality order. He said the order “rests on a basic choice -- whether those who build the networks should make the rules by themselves or whether there should be a basic set of rules and a referee on the field to throw the flag if they are violated.”

Addressing many, contradicting objections to the rules, Chairman Wheeler said, “We should conclude that the biggest broadband providers in the land have one objective -- to operate free from control by their customers and free from oversight from government. If they succeed, then, for the first time in America’s communications history, private gatekeepers will have unfettered power to control commerce and free expression.” “The true choice,” he said, “is between protecting the gatekeepers or protecting consumers and insurgents who wish to boost the greatest strength of America’s economy, namely innovation.”