FCC chairman Ajit Pai gets his biggest win with net neutrality repeal

Small tech companies, consumer groups and many celebrities have been up in arms for weeks about a proposal at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to dismantle landmark rules that guarantee an open internet.

But in one speech, Ajit Pai (pictured), the chairman of the agency, called the complaints “hysteria” and “hot air”. In another, he dismissed criticism that by pushing the change, he was doing the bidding for companies like Verizon, his former employer. He joked that his nightmare scenario would be refereeing a dispute between Verizon and Sinclair Broadcasting, another company he has been accused of helping with his policies.

“How do you choose,” he said, “between a longtime love and a newfound crush?”

The agency voted on Thursday to dismantle the so-called net neutrality rules, which prohibit internet service providers from blocking or charging websites for higher quality delivery to consumers. It, thus,  dialled back the stance established during the Obama administration that broadband should be regulated like a utility. The three Republican commissioners, including Pai, voted for the proposal, outnumbering the two Democratic commissioners.

Passing the plan is the biggest victory in Pai’s eventful 11-month tenure as the head of the FCC. Under his leadership, the agency has already opened the door for more media mergers, curtailed a high-speed internet program for low-income families and allowed broadband providers to raise rates to business customers.

All of this activity has made Pai, 44, a former lawyer for Verizon and a longtime government bureaucrat, the target of many angry protests. In recent days, government officials — including 18 state attorneys generals and dozens of Democratic members of Congress — have asked the FCC to delay the vote. On Wednesday, the attorneys general said that many of the 23 million public comments that had been filed to the agency about net neutrality appeared to be fraudulent. Pai has ignored the delay requests.

Under Pai’s leadership, the FCC has already opened the door for more media mergers, scrapped a high-speed internet program for low-income families and allowed broadband providers to raise rates to business customers. 

But Pai’s changes have also made him a pivotal official in the Trump administration’s rush to shed regulations. The effects of his decisions have rippled across the industries Pai oversees. 

The looser rules on media ownership, for example, has enabled Sinclair Broadcasting’s $3.9-billion bid for Tribune.

“Ajit Pai has the potential to be one of most consequential commissioners in the agency’s history,” said Gus Hurwitz, an assistant professor at the University Of Nebraska College Of Law, who is an expert in telecom policy and who supports Pai’s proposal.

Even Pai’s detractors acknowledge that Pai has been efficient at moving his agenda. Mark Cooper, a staff member of Consumer Federation of America, said  Pai has far outpaced his recent predecessors, even if Cooper does not agree with those efforts.

“In every way,” Cooper said, “his decisions are bad for consumers and good for big corporations.”

Pai declined to be interviewed for this article. But in a statement, the FCC said that he “has been focused on making the agency more transparent, closing the digital divide, and updating the Commission’s rules to reflect the modern communications marketplace”.

The agency added that “the FCC has modernised its rules across a wide range of areas to encourage more competition and innovation”.

Pai’s deregulatory fervour began well before the presidential election and his nomination by President Trump.

The child of immigrants from India who settled in Kansas, Pai was lauded by Republicans and Democrats when he was appointed in 2011 by President Obama to the FCC. 

Lawmakers and public interest groups hoped the young nominee would bring a greater appreciation for how communications were shifting online than past commissioners.

©2017 The New York Times News Service