Wheeler: Title II Is Actually Act III of Agency's Broadband Play

Federal Communications Commission chairman Tom Wheeler took his pitch for Title II-based network-neutrality rules to a Silicon Flatirons Center conference Monday (Feb. 9), but said it was only Act II in the FCC's "historic" triumvirate of broadband decisions.  

In closing remarks at the Digital Broadband Migration: First Principles for a Twenty First Century Innovation Policy seminar, he said Act I was the FCC's decision to make 25-Mbps downstream the new definition of high-speed when it comes to advanced telecom being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion. The commision made the deicision either in tandem with, before, or under pressure from, the White House, depending on whom you ask.   

Act II will be the (widely expected) Feb. 26 decision to grant petitions by the cities of Chattanooga and Wilson, N.C., to preempt state laws limiting their build outs of broadband networks.

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John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.