Contact: Alix Anfang, (917) 623-8052
WASHINGTON, DC – Broadband for America (BfA) Honorary Co-Chairs John Sununu and Harold Ford Jr. released the following statement in response to the Federal Communications Commission’s Open Internet Order vote:
“The FCC’s decision to impose obsolete telephone-era regulations on the high-speed Internet is one giant step backwards for America’s broadband networks and everyone who depends upon them. These ‘Title II’ rules go far beyond protecting the Open Internet, launching a costly and destructive era of government micromanagement that will discourage private investment in new networks and slow down the breakneck innovation that is the soul of the Internet today.
Internet service providers have been, and will continue to be, committed to an Open Internet. We have also been committed to investment, leading the world with $1.3 trillion invested over the last two decades. As a result, America’s Internet is more competitive and more affordable than anywhere else in the world.
Yet, despite this incredible American success story, today, in a partisan 3-2 vote, the FCC has abandoned over 15 years of successful bipartisan policy that, by nearly everyone’s acknowledgement, has worked exceedingly well. The result? Years of legal uncertainty that will chill investment and innovation in the most successful sector of our economy while likely raising new taxes and fees on middle class families.
There is only one solution: now is the time for Congress to act, to enshrine the Open Internet into law, end the gamesmanship, and secure America’s continued leadership in the global Internet economy. Congressional legislation permanently codifying core net neutrality protections into law can end legal uncertainty, clarify the FCC’s role and protect the bipartisan-led framework that has advanced the extraordinary growth of high speed Internet for nearly two decades.”