Tom Wheeler isn’t unusually moved with his replacement at the FCC (Ajit Pai) and states the former Verizon lawyer has an entirely real goal in killing net neutrality protections: making life easier on uncompetitive broadband pools. Speaking at a conference in Virginia last week, Wheeler was smart to again highlight that three-quarters of the United States need the choice of more than one broadband provider at rates greater than 25 Mbps, thing that gives them unprecedented power.
“When you’ve only seen one provider, who gives the rules? The provider executes the rules,” Wheeler said.
With Ajit Pai regarding repealing the popular customer protections, “the question shifts, will giant corporations be able to utilize their monopoly position?” Wheeler said. “Who takes going to stand up for users? Who is going to stand up for a change? And who is going to stand up for the most outstanding network for determining our future in the 21st century?”
With industry giants and one-time net neutrality partners like Google and Netflix now making sheepish on the subject as they lobby the Trump organization for favors of their own, small companies, startups, entrepreneurs, and customers are really all that’s reaching in the way of giant ISP lobbyists this time around. Most of them are competing in a July 12 day of action protecting the FCC’s decision, both online and off.
“The Trump FCC has declared in no ambiguous terms that they intend to abolish the rules that are now in a park at the request of this handful of companies,” Wheeler said. The former FCC Boss said the FCC “got a line from 800 entrepreneurs, saying, ‘you can’t do that as you’ll threaten our access, our ability to… reach consumers,'” Wheeler said. “We’ll have to go and say, ‘Mother may I’ to get on the tracks. We won’t be able to race with the big guys who have deep pockets to pay for your fast lanes. 800 entrepreneurs vs. four ISPs.”
While Ajit Pai has done it pretty clear he intends to ignore public comments in support of net neutrality when he decides to kill the rules later this year, Wheeler made it clear that there will be adequate chances to shut the effort down via subsequent lawsuits.
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