Hundt Squares Off With Powell, Wiley Over Net Neutrality and Title II
Former FCC chairmen battled over net neutrality and broadband reclassification along partisan lines on a panel Wednesday at the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council's Access to Capital and Telecom Policy Conference. Democrat Reed Hundt said the FCC should be focused on addressing income inequality, and while some of the ways to do that involved selling spectrum in blocks that are affordable and imposing spectrum caps, another was through net neutrality because it protected Internet entrepreneurs seeking to reach customers over broadband Internet systems. Net neutrality created a level playing field “because this platform called the Internet should be shared by everybody,” said Hundt, who is founder and CEO of Coalition for Green Capital.
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Republican Michael Powell said net neutrality wasn’t objectionable in itself, but the FCC’s reimposition of a “rearward looking regulatory regime” under Title II of the Communications Act was the problem. Powell, who heads the NCTA, said regulating multifaceted broadband Internet systems as if they were the traditional phone network would raise regulatory burdens, consumer costs, taxation and the cost of capital. He took note of the Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy paper released Tuesday that suggested Title II regulation could depress telecom industry investment by up to 21 percent (see 1507140048), and he said Europe was now trying to back away from a common-carrier regulatory approach to the Internet.
Republican Richard Wiley agreed and said broadband reclassification was a shame because there was general agreement on the need for net neutrality protections. He said Title II "is really utility regulation” that is “turning the clock back to the age of the telephone.” The FCC’s Title II course would lead to added industry and consumer costs, years of uncertainty, and “who knows” how it will end, said Wiley, who is chairman of Wiley Rein LLP.
Hundt said he admired the “rhetorically brilliant” arguments, but if companies are reducing capital expenditures, he suggested it could be due to slow overall economic growth. Powell said Hundt should look at the sworn affidavits of broadband company officials citing the anticipated Title II harms to their business plans in documents industry parties had submitted to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in unsuccessfully seeking a stay of the FCC’s broadband reclassification and Internet conduct standard. But Hundt voiced skepticism that real companies were making decisions to cut spending based on FCC Title II jurisdiction.
Powell said it’s not an “either/or” situation. He said Title II will not stop the wave of Internet innovation sweeping the industry through the constant doubling of chip capacity under Moore’s Law and other technological changes. But Title II “will slow it and confuse it,” he said. Powell suggested the industry could become mired in a regulatory morass as disgruntled companies unhappy with their arrangements and negotiations with broadband providers would file complaints at the FCC seeking a helping hand. He suggested such reviews could take eight months to a year to resolve. He lamented the FCC was “applying ancient policies inappropriately” and trying to put “round pegs into square holes.”
Hundt said appreciatively, “It sounds so good.” Noting Moore’s Law, he then quipped that it seemed that the number of Republican presidential candidates was doubling every day. Powell responded that it seemed that the Democrats are “monopolists,” in a reference to Hillary Clinton’s status as the expected nominee. Hundt also quipped that the panel's composition appeared to show that one Democrat equals two Republicans. Powell countered that the Democrat likes to talk twice as long.