The FCC will look at how data caps for fixed and mobile broadband internet service affect consumers and competition. The Commission seeks public comment so the agency can determine if it needs to do more.
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said, “Restricting consumers’ data can cut off small businesses from their customers, slap fees on low-income families, and prevent people with disabilities from using the tools they rely on to communicate. As the nation’s leading agency on communications, it’s our duty to dig deeper into these practices and make sure that consumers are put first.”
Republican FCC Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington dissented. Carr said the Notice of Inquiry “starts down the path of directly regulating rates” and the agency doesn’t have the legal authority to do so.
Simington said “usage-based pricing is not a debate into which the Commission should wade. Because, whether or not usage-based pricing is pro-consumer, regulation of usage-based plans of any variety is rate regulation by another name.”
Comments to Docket 23-199 are due by November 14, and replies by comment date of December 2.
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
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