The future of the internet is up for grabs — theoretically

Now, three years later, current FCC Chairman Pai, a free-market Republican and staunch critic of government regulations, has proposed to reverse Wheeler’s rules, aggressively pushing a return to classifying internet providers as an “information service,” a designation with far fewer regulations.

The change, which the FCC is likely to vote on later this year, would both neuter the commission’s ability to rein in providers and open the possibility, again, of creating slow and fast lanes for internet traffic — determined in part by who is willing to pay.

This time around, Republicans control the commission. And it’s a lot quieter at the FCC — perhaps because the internet titans see a friend in the chair who isn’t prone to considering other opinions.

From May 18, when the FCC released Pai’s proposed rules, to the end of the public comment period on Aug. 30, commissioners and agency staff met only 16 times with companies and other organizations — about one meeting every six days, or one-fifth as many as when Wheeler issued his proposal in 2014, according to the Center’s analysis.

No one from AT&T set up a meeting. No Verizon. No Comcast. In fact, of the 16 meetings, the FCC met with only two, relatively small, internet providers: Antietam Cable Television Inc., a provider serving a rural county in Maryland, and Home Telephone Company Inc., which provides service north of Charleston, South Carolina.

Most of the people sitting down with the FCC worked for advocacy groups such as the National Hispanic Media Coalition, which lobbies for inclusive and affordable communications, and the Voices for Internet Freedom Coalition, a group of minority organizations that support net neutrality.

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Lauren Victoria Burke/AP

The reason for so few meetings, say broadband policy experts, lies in the stark differences between Wheeler’s and Pai’s approaches. Wheeler, despite having run powerful wireless and cable associations in Washington, was seen as trying to solve a regulatory puzzle, attempting to balance consumer interests with business priorities. That attitude drew a horde of disparate groups seeking to influence the debate by having face time with FCC staff, those who worked with him said.

Conversely, Pai, a former Verizon attorney, is widely viewed as driven to give the telecommunications industry what it wants, despite surveys showing more than half to two-thirds of the public support keeping net-neutrality rules as they are.

“You had, under Wheeler, a search for an answer, and under Pai, you begin with an answer,” said Michael Copps, a former FCC commissioner and now a special adviser at the left-leaning consumer-advocacy group Common Cause. “You’ve got a chairman with his mind already made up.”

The Senate voted Monday to confirm Pai to a second term as a commissioner and continue as chairman.

While the big providers have largely skipped meeting with FCC staff, what they have done is wage a PR campaign claiming they want an internet open to all without conditions, while simultaneously filing comments at the FCC seeking to kill the rules implemented under Wheeler. Big firms say they simply want to eliminate needless regulation. Their critics say the large providers are cynically trying to play both sides of the street.

Still, it’s the face-to-face meetings that have the most influence over FCC policies because executives and lobbyists can sit down across the table from rulemakers to discuss how a regulation would impact their business.

“If there is a point you really want to make, and you really want to make sure the commissioner or the chairman hears it, you go in and talk to them, one on one,” said Gigi Sohn, a former top adviser to Wheeler. “To not meet at all, on a docket like this, is highly unusual.”

The message in the few meetings is clear: Internet providers have little doubt that Pai intends to kill net-neutrality rules without considering other views.

“There was a lot of effort to shape what [Wheeler’s] notice would say,” said Harold Feld, a senior vice president at the telecommunications and internet advocacy group Public Knowledge. “Pai is about as pugnaciously pre-decided as it is possible to get.”

Pai’s public push to spike net neutrality has now drawn notice on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers want to meet with a variety of internet players and craft a possible legislative solution that would clearly spell out providers’ limits. So far that’s been a rocky process. But if the Republican-controlled Congress finds a way to pass legislation, it’s likely to align with Pai’s position.

‘Damascus road experience’

The current net-neutrality rules are also called the open internet order or Title II, a reference to the section of the Communications Act of 1934 that provides regulation of common carriers, like telephones — and it allows for tighter regulations. The current rules prohibit internet providers from charging online companies more for delivering services such as video faster to consumers, referred to as “paid prioritization.” Internet providers also can’t block or slow the delivery of content, and that prevents them from favoring their own programs and companies. Comcast, for example, owns NBC Universal and part of the on-demand video service Hulu LLC.

Pai argues that from 2014, the year before the net-neutrality rules went into effect, through 2016, those rules caused internet providers to cut spending on upgrading and expanding their broadband networks by $3.6 billion, a 5.6 percent drop, because they can’t expect a reasonable return on their investment. The analysis behind the claim was conducted by Hal Singer, a principal at Economists Inc. and a professor at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. Singer said he did not receive funding for the study. Other groups, such as the left-leaning advocacy group Free Press, dispute Singer’s conclusion, arguing investments have actually increased during that time.

When the FCC proposes regulations, such as for net neutrality, it provides the public time to file comments to the agency. Companies, advocacy groups, lobbyists and the public can also meet in person with commissioners and agency staff. If they do, they must file a so-called ex parte notice with the FCC, identifying who was at the meeting and the topics discussed.

During the 123-day-comment period for Wheeler’s proposed open internet order, commissioners and FCC staff met with businesses and trade associations 50 times out of 79 total meetings, or 63 percent. During the 99-day-comment period for Pai’s proposed rules, only seven, or 44 percent, of the 16 meetings were with companies and their trade associations. The comment period for Wheeler’s proposal was longer because the FCC extended the comment and reply-comment periods after the agency’s computer system to file comments crashed.

One company that met a lot with the FCC in 2014 was AT&T. The third-largest broadband provider in the nation sat down with FCC staff more than any other provider, visiting the agency six times. Comcast, the largest internet provider, had three meetings. Verizon and broadband providers CenturyLink Inc. and Charter Communications Inc each met with the commission once.