OTI Welcomes FCC’s Vote This Week to Reinstate Title II Authority and Protect the Open Internet

WASHINGTON—In response to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) confirming plans to reinstate Title II authority and protect the open internet, the Open Technology Institute (OTI), a New America program fostering equitable access to digital technology and its benefits, issued the following statements from Raza Panjwani, a Senior Policy Counsel at OTI, and Michael Calabrese, Director of the Wireless Future program at OTI.

Raza Panjwani: We welcome the FCC's action. It's time to put this issue to bed once and for all: fast, reliable broadband internet access is too important to lack an expert agency’s oversight. Americans deserve better than relying on vague promises to "trust us" from large companies with spotty track records.

For nearly two decades, the large ISPs and mobile carriers have tried to make a virtue of escaping any accountability—all the while pretending that any sort of open internet protections for consumers were intolerable burdens instead of common sense rules of the road.

By restoring the rules upheld by the DC Circuit, the FCC is laying a strong foundation and can finally address a range of issues, from the security of our networks to privacy and from better network performance to resiliency reporting. At the same time that the federal government is investing billions through the Broadband, Equity, Access, and Deployment program and the Affordable Connectivity Program to connect and make the internet affordable for all Americans, it only makes sense to also ensure every American is getting the full, open internet without interference from their ISPs. Americans deserve nothing less.

Michael Calabrese: The reinstatement of the 2015 open internet protections are vital to promoting a virtuous cycle of online innovation, competition, and consumer choice. One often overlooked way the rules promote competition is through regulatory parity, so that no one technology, such as cable or mobile broadband, is given an exemption from the most essential bright line rules, particularly the prohibition on fast lanes and paid prioritization.