WASHINGTON DC – Tom Wheeler, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, never dreamed he’d be fodder for late-night TV comedians. But 12 months into his agency’s rewrite of rules governing Internet access, he’s still trying to explain his plan for saving the Internet.
A former wireless and cable industry lobbyist and venture capitalist appointed to lead the FCC in November 2013 by President Barack Obama, Wheeler became the butt of a humorous 13-minute rant on John Oliver’s HBO show “Last Week Tonight” in June, reported CNET News.Com.
“Yes, the guy who used to run the cable industry’s lobbying arm is now tasked with regulating it,” Oliver said. “That is the equivalent of needing a babysitter and hiring a dingo. ‘Here’s $20 for kibble, please don’t eat my baby.'”
What prompted Oliver’s monologue? Wheeler’s proposal for reinstating so-called net neutrality rules that a federal court struck down exactly one year ago today. The rules had prohibited broadband providers from blocking or slowing down Internet traffic and ensured that consumers and entrepreneurs alike had equal access to the Internet.
Wheeler’s initial proposal was roundly criticized. Consumers, activists and congressional leaders, including Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), complained the FCC’s fixes were weak and would create Internet “fast lanes.” Those fast lanes would, in turn, let broadband providers, like Comcast and Verizon, charge Internet companies, such as Netflix and Amazon, for priority access to their networks.
In those 13 minutes, Oliver schooled viewers about Net neutrality — a topic policy wonks have debated for more than a decade — and implored Internet trolls to flood the FCC with comments trashing the chairman’s proposal. And they did — to the tune of a record 3.7 million comments.
“Right away, there were people who were saying, ‘That isn’t sufficient,'” Wheeler said in a 30-minute exclusive interview on Monday with CNET News.
It’s easy to lose sight of what’s at stake amid all the noise. On one side: Those who argue the only way to ensure the new rules would protect the Internet and withstand future legal challenges from broadband providers is to reclassify broadband as a Title II utility service under the 1934 Telecommunications Act. Such a move would essentially treat broadband the same as the old-style telephone network.
“The president and I never were pulling on opposite ends of the rope. We have been pulling in the same direction, which is figuring out how do we get an open Internet.”
Tom Wheeler, chairman, FCC.
On the other side stand broadband providers and their supporters who counter that approach is too drastic and will stifle investment and innovation in the Internet.
How did all of this come about? The drama started on January 14, 2014, when the United States Court of Appeals sided with Verizon Communications in a lawsuit challenging the FCC’s 2010 Open Internet rules. The court overturned those rules, which has left the Internet defenseless against potential abuses from broadband providers. The FCC’s job, said Wheeler, is to fix that. And he is unapologetic for the controversy and debate it has created.
“I have been trying to do what is the right thing to do for creating an open Internet,” Wheeler said. “To the extent that it became fodder for people that was one thing. To the extent that people called me names or demonstrated at my house, that kind of goes with the turf. I was trying to answer the question, ‘What is it that this agency can do to make sure that we have an Open Internet?'”
Wheeler says he’s listened to the people and that his thinking has changed dramatically in the past year, especially on the big question of broadband reclassification as a utility. He also talked about why wireless services shouldn’t be exempt from Net neutrality regulation and why he believes the FCC’s new proposal, to be presented on Feb. 5 and voted up or down on Feb. 26, won’t lose another legal challenge.
And he said the FCC and President Obama — who called an open Internet “essential to the American economy, and increasingly to our very way of life” — are on the same page when it comes to protecting the Internet for consumers. For Wheeler, the White House’s statement in November endorsing Net neutrality “put wind in our sails.”
“The President and I never were pulling on opposite ends of the rope,” Wheeler said. “We have been pulling in the same direction, which is figuring out how do we get an open Internet.”
To read an edited transcript of the conversation, Click on CNET.Com
