Federal Communications Commission chairman Tom Wheeler told Congress Tuesday that it wants the authority to regulate broadband Internet rates, and said Congress shouldn’t pass legislation explicitly taking that authority away.
At the same time, Wheeler stressed that he has no intention to use that authority.
“[Y]ou believe that you should have the authority to regulate rates even though you choose not to at this time, the commission should have that authority to be able to regulate broadband rates?” Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., asked Wheeler during a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on Tuesday.
“Yes, sir,” Wheeler replied. The FCC chairman said his agency needed to retain that authority so it can prevent Internet service providers from “throttling” services — that is, slowing down Internet service to certain customers, or creating “fast lanes” for customers who pay higher prices.
“And we’ve all agreed we don’t want to do throttling, because how do you throttle?” he explained. “There is a rate [customers] are paying, you are delivering less than that service that you say that you are going to offer, therefore there is a rate impact.”
FCC rulemaking and authority has proven controversial within the agency and without, especially since the Democratic-appointed commissioners voted to claim broader regulatory authority over the Internet by classifying it as a telecommunications service under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934. The vote, and the release of net neutrality regulations, angered Republican-appointed commissioners and moved Congress to start developing legislation to curtail agency authority.
Kinzinger professed surprise that Wheeler would hold out for the power to regulate broadband rates after previously saying he didn’t want it. “There’s a lot of details, but we went from you saying ‘I agree we should not be able to regulate broadband rates’ to now saying ‘we should regulate broadband rates, but I’ll forbear [doing] it for this moment,'” he said.
Ajit Pai, one of the GOP-appointed commissioners, urged Kinzinger to proceed with legislation preventing FCC regulation. “I think the chairman’s commitment should be taken at its word, that rate regulation is indeed on the table,” he said.
