Before Freaking Out About The FCC's New Neutrality Rules, Perhaps You Could Be Bothered To Actually Read Them
from the pay-attention,-chicken-little dept
While there's been no limit of hand-wringing over the new net neutrality rules, much of this has been either hyberbole by giant ISPs that don't like having their anti-competitive pipe dreams quashed, or by folks who don't actually understand what the rules actually do. There are a number of smaller ISPs, partisans and tech execs that exist in the second camp, assuming in kneejerk fashion that the FCC's new rules saddle them with all manner of burdensome regulations. In reality, as we've noted several times, not much changes under the new rules -- provided you don't intend to engage in anti-competitive behavior.Former Verizon regulatory lawyer turned FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai voted down the rules, and has been waging a bizarre, facts-optional assault on neutrality supporters like Netflix ever since. Last week Pai managed to drum up a little extra hysteria on this front by proclaiming that the new rules were crushing small ISPs with all manner of new costs. Pai trots out several small ISPs that, in filings to the FCC, take a page out of the AT&T pouting playbook and say they're freezing investment in broadband because the rules are just too damn onerous:
"KWISP President Kenneth Hohhof told Ars that his two-person company makes revenue of $250,000 to $300,000 per year, and he estimates that he’ll have to pay $20,000 in legal costs because he intends to hire a lawyer to review his business practices. Hohhof admits that he “pulled that [number] out of the air,” but given the hourly rates charged by telecom lawyers, he expects the bill to be substantial for such a small company.Yes, like with any regulations, investors will need to do due diligence, and businesses need to occasionally consult attorneys to understand the market landscape in which they operate. Also, shockingly, lawyers do indeed tend to take extra advantage of people who can't be bothered to understand when their services are or aren't needed. And while it's clear the FCC could do a better job communicating the rules' impact, these problems aren't the fault of the rules themselves.
...Another wireless ISP Pai described is SCS Broadband in rural Virginia, which serves 800 customers and “has already stopped investing in new rural areas because of the FCC’s decision, and it won’t resume until it can ‘determine if the additional cost in legal fees warrant such investments,’” Pai said. “And investors have already told SCS Broadband that ‘projects that were viable investments under the regime that existed before the Order will no longer provide the necessary returns to justify the investment.’"
Rather amusingly, Ars Technica then proceeds to dissect most of these concerns point by point, suggesting that most of the small ISPs engaged in hysterics over the rules appear to not understand them in the slightest. As Ars notes, most of the onerous portions of Title II (rate regulation, local loop unbundling) aren't included in the rules, and most smaller ISPs are exempted from new transparency requirements. Indeed, most of the non-blocking, non-throttling, and "reasonable network management" requirements are the same, relatively-generous ones these ISPs lived under with the original net neutrality rules, which they didn't need lawyers to understand and comply with.
The bottom line: a lot of confusion and fear on the part of hysterical anti-Title II folks could be eliminated by actually reading the rules (pdf), instead of listening to incumbent ISP lawyers, former incumbent ISP lawyers like Ajit Pai, or execs like Mark Cuban. Again, many folks who actually run ISPs for a living (like Sonic.net CEO Dane Jasper) note it's only ISPs that engage in anti-competitive behavior that should worry. That's not hard to realize if you've paid attention to the FCC's recent, totally out of character, shift toward notably more consumer and competition-friendly telecom policies that are already benefiting consumers and companies alike.
Even the major ISPs that hate the idea of having their anti-competitive shenanigans policed have repeatedly and quietly admitted the rules don't impact their day-to-day business operations much. While their lawyers and lobbyists have been busy predicting business Armageddon, dozens of ISP execs have gone on record in recent months to admit the rules don't change much of anything for them operationally. And indeed, small ISPs that have bothered to pay attention to this bizarre new about-face at the FCC (like Joshua Montgomery of Wicked Broadband in Kansas) appear to understand this:
"If you're behaving in your customers' best interests and operating above the board, I don't think you have anything to be concerned about,” he said. “If you're advertising a $19 rate and then jacking people's bills up to $125 with fees and other things after six months and claiming some kind of long-term deal, yeah you're probably going to have trouble. [The FCC] made it very clear that their goal is to encourage competition, and I don't think they have their eyes on small players."At the heart of the net neutrality opposition are very wealthy companies immeasurably angry that somebody is finally trying to stop them from aggressively cashing in on the lack of competition over the broadband last mile. At the periphery are many satellite opponents who just oppose the new rules because (certainly not without some valid historic justification) they believe all regulation is always bad, and you don't need to have an intelligent, nuanced debate on the merits of individual proposals because the fact that regulation is always, automatically bad is always true and la la la I can't hear you. The former have a pretty easy time riling up the latter, but you can go a long way toward avoiding this kind of confusion by actually reading and understanding the regulations you're busy claiming will destroy the business universe as we know it.
Filed Under: ajit pai, fcc, net neutrality, rules, small isps
Companies: at&t, kwisp, scs broadband, verizon, wicked broadband
