How The FCC Subverted Net Neutrality's First Principles

[Commentary] Today network neutrality is often described as the principle that internet service providers (ISPs)—and only ISPs—treat all data on the internet the same. But it wasn’t always this way and shouldn’t be this way going forward.

The Federal Communications Commission’s original net neutrality principles were framed in terms of consumer rights and competition among network providers, application and service providers, and content providers. When it adopted net neutrality rules five years later, however, the FCC eliminated all references to consumer protection and competition—the traditional pillars of communications regulation. The rules instead limited the application of net neutrality principles to the “last mile” portion of the network that’s operated by ISPs (i.e., the connection from an individual consumer or home to the rest of the internet). The FCC’s decision to limit the application of its net neutrality rules to ISPs represented a fundamental shift in its approach to communications regulation, a shift that effectively abandoned its traditional roles of protecting consumers and promoting competition in wire and radio communications. The FCC’s revised approach focused its efforts on the ways internet service providers do business with other network providers and big tech companies, irrespective of competition or harm to consumers.

[Fred Campbell is the director of Tech Knowledge, a Senior Policy Advisor with Wireless 20/20, and an adjunct professor in the Space, Cyber, and Telecommunications Law program at the Nebraska College of Law.]