FCC boss: Oh look, net neutrality didn't end the world after all. Surprise!

[RAMd®d]

Tom Wheeler, chairman of US broadband watchdog the FCC, has given telcos a firm poke in the eye over their net neutrality doomsday predictions.

Speaking on the one-year anniversary of the Open Internet Order at the GnoviCon conference in Washington DC, Wheeler reflected on the fact that the big telcos railed against the rules.

"Critics howled that the rules would be devastating for network investment – that broadband deployment would screech to a halt," he reminisced. "So how are those predictions working out?"

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/03/21/...eutrality/

[N-OS X-tasy!]

Wheeler gets a gold star from me so far with regard to championing a pro-consumer approach to FCC-related issues. OTOH, his predecessor, Michael Powell, gets a poopie-brown star.

[deckeda]

He's right to not let this go; it's so annoying when FUD gets spread and then forgotten about. And the truth is the FCC could go a lot farther and regulate RATES and open up the last mile and they'd still make cash hand-over-fist.

A Republican president and resulting Republican FCC Chairman would however set us back again of course next year. Something to consider.

Here's an interesting interview he gave Ars: http://arstechnica.com/business/2016/03/...nightmare/ Sounds like an activist for a position that's traditionally a pencil-pushing rubber-stamp job.

[RAMd®d]

Here's an interesting interview he gave Ars: [arstechnica.com] Sounds like an activist for a position that's traditionally a pencil-pushing rubber-stamp job.

I've yet to read that interview, but I do remember the ire at his appointment based on his previous occupation.

I didn't know anything about him until his appointment, but I am impressed. It will be interesting to see what his tenure accomplishes, and how it might shape his successor's actions.

[deckeda]

The big takeaway you'll read there is that he latches onto underdogs. The cable industry was an underdog in the '70s when he lobbied for them.

By the time they got large in the early-mid '80s he was gone and feeling pressure from them that contributed to killing his business, trying to offer the country's first broadband ISP!

He also said the same scenario played out when he later lobbied for cellphone telcos in the early '90s, who had to pay to use landline connections. Later, after he successfully helped them get big, he was gone.

So in a way he helped create all of this scenario insofar as those industries have gotten hugely powerful, and now it's apparently our turn to benefit from his tenacity.

[Bimwad]

It would be a pity if all this is undone by the next Administration, or Congress.

Or someone like that piece of work Pai is installed to the big chair.

[Bill in NC]

To be fair there are still ongoing legal challenges from broadband providers...we don't (yet) know if the FCC's new rules will stick.