UPDATE The net neutrality debate, or FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel’s proposal to reinstate Title II regulation on broadband ISPs, is in for a whopping eighth discussion at the agency. The battles will continue until Congress decides to weigh in, according to New Street Research Policy Analyst Blair Levin. But he also believes given the current congressional dynamics, the odds of that happening are slim.
His main point in an analysis is the issue is likely to end up in court. “As far as we can tell, the ISPs have agreed to the net neutrality rules,” says Levin in a client report. Those rules are: no blocking, no throttling and no unreasonable paid prioritization of content. He asserts the ISPs are abiding by the rules and have “little incentive to do differently. “The incentives to discriminate, that existed in the low bandwidth environment of the first decades of the commercial internet with an average download speed in 2010 of four Mbps have been largely eliminated in the current high bandwidth environment of 2023,” when the average download speed is 210 Mbps.
However, the adoption of new rules could affect market perceptions of the ISP industry. That’s largely because, in the heat of the battle, “the dominant narrative will be the worst of times narrative, which will, in turn, make investors nervous,” says Levin.
Whatever the FCC does, someone in the industry is likely to challenge it “and it will be well into the next Administration before there is a decision,” he asserts. If there is one or more court challenges, senior agency officials believe the proposal will stand up in court, they told reporters before the announcement, Inside Towers noted.
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
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