Complete Story
03/22/2018
Ajit Pai says net neutrality was the top threat to broadband deployment
Net neutrality is the number-one reason many rural Americans still lack broadband access—at least, that's what Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai says.
In a speech to the American Cable Association (ACA) today, Pai said that "closing the digital divide is the FCC's top policy priority" and that nothing impeded that goal more than net neutrality rules.
The ACA is a lobby group for small- and medium-sized cable companies and was one of Pai's major supporters in the December 2017 vote to repeal net neutrality rules.
Pai's speech to the ACA described the FCC's 2015 Title II order that imposed net neutrality rules on ISPs as a "regulatory misadventure" and a "regulatory onslaught." It was, he said, "the largest deterrent to network investment." Pai noted that 30 percent of rural Americans lack access to high-speed broadband at home.
"I'm proud to say that last year, we reversed the Title II Order," Pai said. "We restored the light-touch approach to network regulation that served us well for almost 20 years, paving the way for over $1.5 trillion in private investment to build out wired and wireless networks."
