Net Neutrality 2017: Comcast Asks FCC To Keep States From Creating Rules

Telecommunications giant Comcast met this week with the staff of Ajit Pai, the Chairman of the United States Federal Communications Commision, to press the agency to keep individual states from creating net neutrality rules.

Comcast Senior Vice President Frank Buono, accompanied by an attorney for the company, met with Pai’s Chief of Staff Matthew Berry and Senior Counsel Nicholas Degani on Monday, according to an ex parte filing that documented the meeting.

During the meeting, Comcast expressed support for Chairman Pai’s proposal to undo net neutrality rules established by the previous administration. Under those rules, telecommunications companies like Comcast are subjected to regulation as a common carrier under Title II of the Communications Act.

That shift to Title II classification, as implemented by the Obama-era Open Internet Order, established three bright line rules for internet service providers (ISPs) that prevent them from throttling or slowing internet connections, blocking content or providing preferential treatment to certain content providers.

Chairman Pai’s proposal would reverse that classification on the grounds that regulation from the government has prevented ISPs from investing in their network infrastructure and has harmed consumers—and would also strip the FCC of its ability to regulate ISPs who violate the bright line rules of net neutrality.

With that change appearing likely to go into effect, Comcast and other telecom firms are looking to cut off a potential pitfall before can take hold: the possibility of individual states creating their own versions of net neutrality protections that would once again subject ISPs operating within the state's’ borders to regulation.

“We also emphasized that the Commission's order in this proceeding should include a clear, affirmative ruling that expressly confirms the primacy of federal law with respect to BIAS [Broadband Internet Access Service] as an interstate information service, and that preempts state and local efforts to regulate BIAS either directly or indirectly,” the filing for the meeting read.

Comcast was not the first ISP to raise the concern and attempt to preempt the problem. Verizon, the largest mobile carrier in the U.S., also asked the FCC to ensure that its rules would preempt any state laws that attempt to regulate net neutrality.

The ISPs have good reason to be concerned that some states may take action in order to preserve net neutrality. After the U.S. Congress killed the FCC’s Broadband Privacy Rules —another Obama-era policy that would have prevented ISPs from collecting sensitive data about an individual’s online activity without first receiving permission, had it not been struck down before going into effect—a number of state legislatures proposed and passed their own version of the rules to protect consumers in their state.

There is likely little pushback against preventing local level laws within the ranks of the FCC’s majority. FCC commissioner Michael O’Rielly, a Republican like Chairman Pai, has said in the past he wants states to be "barred from enacting their own privacy burdens on what is by all means an interstate information service."

Former Republican FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell made similar comments earlier this week front of a Congressional committee, stating, "the FCC should use its ample statutory authority to preempt states and localities to promote flexible and clear national rules that protect consumers and markets alike."