Today, Public Knowledge submitted reply comments to the Federal Communications Commission’s 2016 Biennial Review of Telecommunications Regulations. Congress requires the FCC to conduct a biennial review to determine if the agency’s recent telecommunications regulations “are no longer necessary in the public interest” due to “meaningful economic competition” between telecommunications service providers. Numerous industry incumbents, directly and through their trade associations, proposed the incoming FCC use this process to completely eliminate net neutrality, broadband privacy protections, and pro-competitive policies adopted under Chairman Wheeler.
The following can be attributed to John Gasparini, Policy Fellow at Public Knowledge:
“The Biennial Review is generally a housekeeping process, giving the FCC an ongoing duty to clear away truly outdated telecommunications regulations that are still on the books solely because nobody has taken the time to repeal them. It is most definitely not meant to provide an opportunity to re-argue the Commission’s most recent policy initiatives, like net neutrality, or to seek broad forbearance and deregulation to harm consumers and disadvantage smaller competitors.
“Major industry incumbents need to remember that the community that fought for strong net neutrality rules and real privacy protections is watching every backdoor and loophole. We will not stand idly by while companies that fought the adoption of these policies probe for opportunities to move policy in the direction of anti-competitive, anti-consumer deregulation at the expense of the public interest.”
You may view these comments here.
Members of the media may contact Communications Director Shiva Stella with inquiries, interview requests, or to join the Public Knowledge press list at shiva@publicknowledge.org or 405-249-9435.