FCC chairman says his agency won’t review AT&T’s Time Warner purchase

“The FCC chose to apply last-century, utility-style regulation to today’s broadband networks”, Pai said during a speech at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

Ajit Pai, has spoken in favor of less stringent regulation of the mobile telecoms market to encourage investment in broader coverage, and more vitally, a future-proofed 5G network. Pai said that the FCC should enforce the same privacy rules across the digital sphere by rolling back these specific privacy requirements for Internet service providers. As part of the Open Internet Order, the Commission also recognized the carriers” mandate under the law “to protect the confidentiality of [their] customers’ proprietary information.’ Internet users want and need these kinds of updated consumer privacy safeguards to protect their private information from unauthorized disclosure and abuse. “That is the regulatory hook for FCC review”, he said. Free Press policy director Matt Wood comments that Pai’s decision to induce this stay completely violates USA law that requires the agency to protect customers from these telecom networks. In an SEC filing last month, the companies indicated that an FCC review wouldn’t be necessary since no licenses would be transferred. Rules developed to tame a 1930s monopoly were imported into the 21st century to regulate the Internet.

Former FCC chairman Tom Wheeler, who oversaw the approval of net neutrality rules, criticized the current FCC’s approach in a phone interview with CNNTech.

On Tuesday, Pai said that his move led to providers putting forth new unlimited data offerings.

“Pai’s frequent charge that investment has declined is based on the claims made by one industry-paid analyst, who selectively edits the figures reported by some of these companies”.

Since the FCC’s net neutrality rules were imposed in 2015, Pai has called for them to be rescinded and with a Republican majority on the commission now, he’s in a position to make that happen.

FCC Chairman Pai “has advocated returning to a technology-neutral privacy framework for the online world and harmonizing the FCC’s privacy rules for broadband providers with the FTC’s standards for others in the digital economy”.

An indication of the swift reversal of FCC policies by the new chairman was Pai’s announcement of the end of an investigation into “zero-rating” or free-data services. That why Pai’s taking a breath for regulatory reset is so welcome. “That does not benefit consumers”, he said.

Speaking at the conference, Pai’s chief of staff said the chairman does not believe broadcasters should have to pay out-of-pocket for the shift, and that Pai will remain in contact with industry stakeholders to determine whether the $1.75 billion reimbursement fund is viable.