PITTSBURGH, April 26, 2017 – American Cable Association President and CEO Matthew M. Polka issued the following statement about FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s announcement on action to reconsider the 2015 Open Internet regulations:
“ACA supports FCC Chairman Pai’s plan to preserve consumers’ open access to the Internet while eliminating the heavy-handed regulation of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) imposed by the previous FCC.
“The current utility-style rules are not needed for the FCC to ensure that consumers have access to any lawful online content, and, because these rules have discouraged ISPs from investing, they have harmed consumers’ access to robust, high-quality broadband service.
“The small ISPs represented by ACA pride themselves on serving their customers, who are their neighbors, friends, and family. They have always provided their customers with unfettered online access to all lawful content. They have always given upstream Internet content providers a free path to their customers. They have always sought to provide their customers with high performance broadband services.
“Yet, in adopting the 2015 Open Internet regulations, the previous FCC ignored all of this evidence, imposed burdensome rules ill-suited to smaller ISPs and threatened even harsher regulation in the future.
“For smaller ISPs, most of whom operate in more rural areas, the costs of these rules are real and substantial. Their customers also are being harmed as smaller ISPs have put off network investments and are deferring, and even halting, the development of new features and services. The 2015 rules have turned out to be all pain and no gain.
“And so, Chairman Pai is more than justified in re-evaluating these misguided rules to better ensure an open Internet. ACA and its members will again participate in the proceeding and will again produce evidence that utility-style regulation is not warranted and not needed for the FCC to ensure that customers of smaller ISPs have continued access to an Open Internet.”
About the American Cable Association: Based in Pittsburgh, the American Cable Association is a trade organization representing nearly 750 smaller and medium-sized, independent cable companies who provide broadband services for nearly 7 million cable subscribers primarily located in rural and smaller suburban markets across America. Through active participation in the regulatory and legislative process in Washington, D.C., ACA’s members work together to advance the interests of their customers and ensure the future competitiveness and viability of their business. For more information, visithttps://acaconnects.org/