Remarks of FCC Commissioner O'Rielly before the Cloud Comms Summit

It is a true honor to have the chance to speak before members of the relatively new Cloud Communications Alliance....During times of change, an agency must refrain from subjecting new technologies to old regulatory structures.At a minimum, an agency should not act unless it is clear that the agency has authority, that there is evidence of a market failure warranting intervention, and that the benefits of acting outweigh the costs. Otherwise, regulators risk suppressing further entry, innovation, and investment. Companies that have options for how they allocate their capital will naturally avoid areas that have added regulatory exposure. That’s why I have consistently fought to halt, or at least mitigate, the prior Commission’s mission creep as it tried to extend its reach to edge providers or other new entrants.

I have been so outspoken on the need to declare other services, including VoIP and text messaging, to be interstate, information services, freeing them from unnecessary federal and state requirements. Both services are extremely popular with consumers and businesses, and there is abundant competition both from legacy providers and new over-the-top players to meet the market’s needs. Nonetheless, both services continue to be the target of what I’ve called regulation by analogy.