Statement by Steve Pociask, president of the American Consumer Institute Center for Citizen Research:
“The American Consumer Institute applauds the FCC and its announcement yesterday to initiate a new Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to review and potentially reverse the onerous Internet regulations put in place in 2015. The Internet, as we know it, flourished under a light-touch regulatory model. Despite all the evidence – many studies measuring billions of dollars in consumer welfare losses – the Wheeler-led Commission voted to put the Internet under the yoke of a 1934 law meant for rotary-dialed telephones.
Since these regulations have taken affect, broadband investment declined and deployment slowed – negatively impacting consumers, especially those in underserved communities. ACI looks forward to this Commission’s plans to right a wrong so that consumers can benefit from increased investment and innovation that will fuel advances in telemedicine and other 21st century technologies.”