Net Neutrality Rules: Title II To Be Reversed Under FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's Plan

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai officially announced during a speech Wednesday his intention to undo the Title II classification used to establish and enforce net neutrality principles.

While speaking at an event hosted by FreedomWorks and the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council, Pai spoke of his intention to provide “fast, affordable, and reliable internet access” while also condemning the efforts of the previous administration to introduce rules to regulate internet service providers.

Read: What Is Net Neutrality? How FCC's Title II and Open Internet Rules Came To Be

“The internet is the greatest free market success in history,” Paid said, before suggesting the regulatory efforts of the FCC under Chairman Tom Wheeler and President Barack Obama threatened to undercut the growth and success of the internet.

Chairman Pai said he will introduce a notice of proposed rulemaking that would undo the landmark decision by the FCC to reclassify the internet as a common carrier under Title II of the Telecommunications Act.

At the time, then-chairman Tom Wheeler and two other Democratic FCC chairs voted in favor of the reclassification, which gave the commission the regulatory power to enforce net neutrality—a principle that requires all data online be treated equal and prohibits blocking information, throttling or slowing the speed of data, or paid prioritization that allows favoritism to certain services.

Pai intends to take the regulatory policy back to the Clinton era, where a “light touch” regulatory framework for the internet was in place. Despite the internet being new and barely accessible to a considerable population at the time, Pai argued little has changed about the internet that would have prompted the reclassification effort, a move that he argued was purely political and part of a “longstanding goal of forcing the internet under the control of the government.”

Read: Is Net Neutrality Dead? What The Internet Will Look Like Without Open Internet Rules, Title II

“Nothing about the internet was broken in 2015,” he said, stating that internet infrastructure was expanding and there were no examples of content blocking or throttling to speak of.

Netflix might disagree, as the company was forced to sign traffic deals with ISPs like Comcast and AT&T after the carriers slowed Netflix data and made the service less accessible to consumers.

Similarly, the year prior to net neutrality rules being codified, global telecommunications company Level 3 accused four major American ISPs of deliberately causing congested networks and refusing to build out their infrastructure unless content providers paid them to do so.

According to Pai, Title II reclassification hasn’t solved these problems but rather has exacerbated them. He claimed infrastructure investments by ISPs decreased by 5.6 percent since 2014—a number disputed earlier Wednesday when Craig Aaron, the President and CEO of Free Press, said on a conference call with Democratic Senators that ISP infrastructure investment has actually increased by 5 percent since reclassification.

While Pai said the “easiest path would be to do nothing” in regard to net neutrality and allow the rules to remain on the books, it is his intent to reverse the Title II classification and return internet to its Title I classification as an information service.

He also intends to soften the stance against paid prioritization, especially in cases like zero-rating—where a carrier provides a service, often own it owns, that doesn’t count against a user’s data cap—which he said is liked by consumers.

According to Pai, his plan will bring more high speed internet access to consumers, will create new jobs as companies expand their networks, and will boost competition among carriers.

The entire text of Pai’s proposal will be made available Thursday, and a vote on the notice of proposed rule change is expected as early as May. “You may agree or disagree with the proposal, but you will know exactly what is in it,” Paid said.

Comcast has already issued its support of Pai’s plan. In a statement provided to International Business Times, Comcast chairman and CEO Brian L. Roberts said, "We fully support reversal of Title II classification, a 1930s statute that is outdated and harms consumers by creating a cloud over broadband investment decisions and innovation. Chairman Pai's proposed reversal of Title II does not mean there will be no open Internet protections, but rather creates an environment where we can have a fresh constructive dialogue.”

“Gutting these rules robs Americans of protections that preserve their access to the open and free internet,” Senate Commerce Committee Ranking Member Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) said of Pai’s comments," the statement continued.

“Depriving the FCC of its ongoing, forward-looking oversight of the broadband industry amounts to a dereliction of duty at a time when guaranteeing an open internet is more critical than ever. Chairman Pai should back off from rolling back these essential net neutrality rules.”

On Wednesday, more than 800 startups, investors and tech companies signed on to a letter sent Chairman Pai to call on him to protect, not dismantle, net neutrality rules.