The FCC is toying with reclassifying broadband under Title II of the Communications Act. If the agency rolls back the regulatory clock in this fashion, it will be a huge step backwards for innovation, investment, and quality in this field. How is it that everyone suddenly has collective amnesia about the past that Title II gave us? Doesn’t anyone remember getting their fingers pinched in black rotary dial phones of the Title II regulatory era? I do. Here’s what else that regulatory era gave us: Stagnant markets. Limited choice. Lackluster innovation. What else would you expect when you have price controls, rate-of-return proceedings, state PUC meddling, protected markets, etc. And despite all this revisionist history about Title II “protecting consumers,” the past it gave us was viciously anti-consumer and pro-regulated entity.
Is that the future you want for the Internet and the digital economy? That’s what’s at stake in this fight. Just say NO to a Rotary Dial Internet!
The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.