Complete Story
04/28/2017
FCC Releases Title II Repeal NPRM
As promised, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai released the text of his Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to roll back Title II reclassification of ISPs, including mobile broadband access providers and to relinquish any regulatory authority over interconnection.
And in a nod to smaller cable operators like those represented by the American Cable Association, it seeks comment on the impact of Title II on smaller operators, "many of whom lack the dedicated compliance staffs and financial resources of the nation’s largest provider."
As to having to build a record for the courts for changing the classification arrived at by Pai's predecessor, one of the key issues, the order explained it this way:
"An agency also is free to change its approach to interpreting and implementing a statute so long as it acknowledges that it is doing so and justifies the new approach. Evaluating the change in regulatory approach in the Title II Order, the D.C. Circuit majority in USTelecom applied a 'highly deferential standard' to the agency’s predictive judgments regarding the investment effects of reclassification, and deferred to the Commission's 'evaluat[ion of] complex market conditions' underlying its rejection of providers' reliance interests in the prior classification.
