US telecom watchdog chairman: net neutrality is a mistake
President Ajit Pai of the Federal Communications Commission, the US telecom watchdog, said in a speech at Mobile World Congress that net neutrality was a mistake. Pai has long been an outspoken opponent of net neutrality.
During the conference in Barcelona, Pai said that the regulation of net neutrality under the previous chairman has only created uncertainty for the broadband market. “Uncertainty is the enemy of growth. We now know after two decades that this regulation is not necessary to achieve that goal of growth,” said Pai.
The rules that came about under Obama are characterized by Pai as “regulations of the 1930s”. According to the chairman, these rules did not encourage telecom providers to invest in making mobile broadband available. Pai cited as an example that last year, for the first time, there was less investment in broadband in America. The chairman sees the arrival of 5g as a very positive development; According to him, the construction of the infrastructure for 5g is unnecessarily slowed down by rules surrounding net neutrality.
US President Donald Trump named Pai as the new president early this year. He is a reliable Trump conservative who opposes almost all the major decisions the FCC has made in recent years during the reign of former President Barack Obama.
Pai is not only an opponent of net neutrality, he is also not a proponent of protecting consumer privacy and is not opposed to major mergers in the US cable market. In a speech last December, Pai shared some of his views.
During the summer of last year, Pai, then the FCC’s highest-ranking Republican committee member, already announced that net neutrality regulation is one of the first FCC rules to disappear under Trump. Pai says he wants to remove old-fashioned and unnecessary rules because these regulations would hinder business investment, innovation and job creation. With this, Pai presents himself as a classic Republican who represents corporate interests and wants to stimulate an open and free market through deregulation.
The new chairman believes that net neutrality is a solution to a non-existent problem. Internet providers who, as gatekeepers, can help determine what users see and do on the Internet and whether or not they can treat certain types of Internet traffic with priority, is not an undesirable situation in Pai’s view. According to Reuters, in 2015, Pai said that net neutrality leads to higher internet bills and a slowdown in broadband internet development.