Hal Singer, a Title II opponent, explains why Ajit Pai’s plan won’t protect net neutrality

The Federal Communications Commission plan to repeal network neutrality rules depends partly on the argument that antitrust rules can protect consumers and websites from bad behavior by Internet service providers. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that proposes overturning the rules seeks comment on whether "the existence of antitrust regulations aimed at curbing various forms of anticompetitive conduct" makes the current net neutrality rules unnecessary. But even a prominent opponent of the current net neutrality rules that Chairman Pai wants to overturn says that antitrust isn't robust enough to protect consumers and websites from ISPs.

This anti-antitrust argument comes from economist Hal Singer, who opposed the FCC's 2015 decision under then-Chairman Tom Wheeler to impose net neutrality rules by reclassifying ISPs as common carriers under Title II of the Communications Act. Chairman Pai has repeatedly said that Singer's research on alleged network investment declines proves that the net neutrality rules have been harmful. Singer has derisively called the current net neutrality framework, "the Wheeler tax." But on the question of whether antitrust rules can protect consumers from net neutrality violations, Pai and Singer do not agree.