The Federal Communications Commission Chair, Tom Wheeler, took some time for a one on one interview with Gary Shapiro, the Consumer Electronics’ Association CEO, and he had some interesting things to say. The interview took place at the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show in front of a fairly large audience, most of whom would strongly support an open Internet. During the interview Wheeler seemed to be quite open concerning what the FCC was planning for Net Neutrality, and why.
One of the first, and most important things that was mentioned is that the FCC is just completing their ‘Open Internet Plan’ which is going to be presented to the commissioners of the FCC on February 5th, 2015. They will review it and then vote on it on February 26th, 2015.
Wheeler commented on this situation saying, “The whole open Internet issue is two challenges. The first is you want to make sure that innovators and consumers have open access to the networks.” He continued saying, “The other component that you have to deal with is you want to make sure that you’re creating an environment that provides sufficient incentive for the ISPs to want to build more and better networks.”
Later in the interview Wheeler discussed some different approaches that may be taken, and indicated that they may be leaning toward reclassifying ISPs into the Title II of the Communications Act, which would make ISPs utilities. This puts them under much stricter regulations than in the current setup. Of course, ISPs would not be happy with this, and it would pave the road for easier restrictions and regulations to be put on them in the future.
Of course, we’ll all have to wait to see exactly what the proposal from the FCC says until February. This interview, however, does give us some clues. As marketers, it is always important to keep up to date with any legal changes to how the Internet will be operating as it could potentially have a significant impact on the day to day business decisions.
