On Oct. 27, the Federal Communications Commission voted to maintain its free market policy for broadband internet services. In the nearly three years since it adopted that policy, internet access and speeds have increased while per-megabit prices have decreased. By sticking with this successful policy of less regulation, more people will be more quickly connected to 5G wireless, gigabit-speed fiber, and other next-generation broadband services.

The FCC’s January 2018 Restoring Internet Freedom Order reclassified broadband internet access services as lightly regulated “information services” under Title I of the Communications Act. It repealed the Obama FCC’s onerous Title II “net neutrality” rules that subjected broadband internet service providers to public utility-like regulation. The Trump FCC found no instances of actual consumer harm that would justify public utility regulatory restrictions such as those that had been applied to the monopolistic Ma Bell telephone system. Rather, Title II restrictions likely reduced ISP network investment in 2015 and 2016. The FCC predicted that its removal of Title II rules would boost private market investment and consumer access to advanced services.