The nearest Pai came to talking about net neutrality at all happened during his keynote address before attendees at Mobile World Congress Americas on Tuesday, when he said the conference, “The FCC is currently considering whether we should improve our Internet regulations to promote greater deployment and investment.” At a following appearance in San Francisco on Tuesday evening before portions of the Lincoln Network, when he was charged directly by Recode journalist Ina Fried about the FCC’s plan to undo rules established in 2015 for a free and open Internet, Pai refused to talk because it was a “pending proceeding” before the Commission.
The debate surrounding the suggested changes stems from management fears that removal of the restrictions would allow Internet providers to voluntarily block, slow down services, or favor certain content over others. The FCC has taken more than 22 million public remarks on the proposal to demolish the rules. Google Inc., Facebook Inc., Twitter Inc., and Amazon.com Inc. are among the several tech companies facing the potential changes, otherwise known as “Restoring Internet Freedom.”
Despite the FCC officials’ hesitation to address the firestorm of concern encompassing net neutrality, they were quite clear when it came to considering other subjects that were of great interest to the mobile business in particular. The major themes repeated in both Pai’s remarks and those of FCC administrators centered around securing competition continues strong in wireless, allowing the free exchange to work and eliminating industry regulation anywhere possible.
“It’s important that we try not to overwhelm any U.S. companies,” said FCC Commissioner Michael O’Reilly during an arrival on Wednesday with two of his associates at the Mobile World Congress event. Considering that he took a stroll throughout the trade show floor where exhibitors showcased a number of IoT-related devices, O’Reilly also told the audience that he was “excited to see all the information that the FCC will not be regulating.”
Greater broadband deployment and the coming of 5G are also very important on the minds of the FCC commissioners these days. Views from CTIA, an association of wireless industry companies, indicate that 5G simply will create 3 million jobs in the U.S. alone. “The way I view this season is through the jobs it’s going to create,” said newly elected FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr.
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