December 15, 2023 – Broadband in the United States is a success story that gets better with each chapter. Trillions of dollars of private investment have produced a world-class broadband network infrastructure over which broadband service providers are deploying innovative services with greater performance and reliability at lower prices per Meg. Providers are expanding their coverage to give consumers even greater choice, and, as ACA Connects has demonstrated, providers of all sizes and technologies compete fiercely for every customer.
In comments filed yesterday at the FCC in response to the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) in WC Docket No. 23-320, ACA Connects urged the FCC to maintain a regulatory environment for broadband that preserves investment, deployment, competition and innovation. Specifically, the agency should abandon its proposals to reclassify broadband as a highly regulated “Title II” service and impose burdensome new rules on top. There is no convincing rationale for these measures, which would only undermine, not advance, the Commission’s connectivity goals.
“The FCC got it right in 2017 when it restored the “Title I” classification of broadband that had been in place since the 1990s,” said ACA Connects President and CEO, Grant Spellmeyer. “This decision was not only correct as a matter of law, but it renewed the confidence of broadband service providers to invest capital in expanding and upgrading their networks and rolling out new services. The FCC’s brief experiment with Title II regulation was especially detrimental for the smaller providers ACA Connects represents, who lacked armies of lawyers to help them navigate that complex maze of regulation.”
As explained in ACA Connects’ Comments, the NPRM presents no basis for revisiting the FCC’s 2017 decision in the Restoring Internet Freedom Order. Broadband continues to be properly classified as a Title I “information service,” a fact that will only become clearer as broadband providers continue to integrate new data-processing functions and capabilities with their broadband service.
“We agree with the FCC that the COVID-19 pandemic underscored the critical importance of broadband, but that is no basis for major new regulations. Most importantly, nowhere does the FCC demonstrate that broadband providers are harming the open internet nor that they have incentive to inflict such harm. In the absence of such evidence, the Commission should follow Professor Tim Wu’s recently published cautionary words: ‘To regulate speculative risks, rather than actual harms, would be unwise.’” Spellmeyer said.
ACA Connects’ comments are backed up by signed declarations from six ACA Connects Member companies, representing a diverse array of small and medium-sized providers. The declarants each explained in detail the harmful impact the FCC’s proposals would have on their businesses and, ultimately, on their customers. For instance, Dick Sjoberg, who leads a company with 7,500 broadband customers in Thief River Falls, Minn., attested that “[t]he additional costs imposed by the imposition of a Title II regulation and the proposed open internet rules creates uncertainty for the financial health of the company in the eyes of lenders. Once broadband services are regulated, even if many Title II obligations are initially subject to forbearance, there will be increased overhead and the potential for greater intervention by the FCC and possibly the state regulators, making it more difficult and expensive for us to borrow money.”
In light of the concerns expressed by Mr. Sjoberg and the other declarants, ACA Connects urged the FCC to abandon the course laid out in the NPRM. At a minimum, it should ensure that any regulations it adopts are narrowly tailored to avoid imposing undue burdens on smaller providers. In particular, ACA Connects requested that the FCC not apply the “core” Title II provisions – Sections 201, 202 and 208 – and that it exempt smaller providers from any “general conduct” rule.
About ACA Connects: America’s Communications Association –America’s Communications Association – ACA Connects is a trade organization representing approximately 500 smaller and medium-sized, independent companies that provide broadband, video, and phone services covering 29.5 million households. ACA Connects Members operate in every state, providing advanced communications to connect homes, companies, main street, schools, hospitals and more. America’s economic prosperity in smaller communities and rural areas depends on the growth and success of ACA Connects Members, who believe a connected nation is a prosperous nation.