INTX 2016: Wheeler Calls 'Regulatory Assault' Charge Lobbying Tactic

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler signaled that he thought cable/broadband operators were in danger of standing in the way of progress in their pushback on proposals like set-top box unlocking and special access reforms and that those who do not want to change, or stand in the way of change, are destined to fail. He signaled those proposals could still be adjusted if the industry was willing to work on getting to yes, but just saying "no" was not the way forward. He said that it was while he was running the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) that he developed the philosophy about government he still holds today, which is that it needs to step in to insure competition, then get out of the way.

NCTA president Michael Powell, himself a former FCC chair, opened the show accusing the FCC, and by association Chairman Wheeler, of a "relentless regulatory assault" on the industry, citing the FCC's proposal to "unlock" set-tops, regulate broadband privacy and potentially regulate cable business broadband rates in markets it deems less than competitive. Chairman Wheeler essentially dismissed Powell's "assault" rhetoric as a lobbying tactic that, as a former lobbyist, he knew well.