It’s time for opponents of the Federal Communications Commission’s Net neutrality rules to drop the tired argument that these protections will harm investment. In a July 27 letter to the editor (“Congress should overrule FCC on net neutrality”), Pat Ford claimed that the rules would have this kind of negative impact, citing “many economists and labor leaders” as her source.
While a few economists have made such predictions, others have said the opposite. And the facts show that the FCC rules haven’t hurt investment.
Since the FCC restored net neutrality protections, we’ve seen Comcast, the nation’s largest broadband provider, begin to roll out 2-gigabit fiber services to 18 million locations. Time Warner Cable has accelerated its network upgrades. Even smaller upstart ISPs such as Sonic.net and Ting are deepening their investments, wiring homes and schools with affordable fiber.
The FCC’s rules have brought certainty to the marketplace. Broadband providers and Internet content companies are investing, and consumers can rest easy knowing that their rights to connect and communicate have been put back in place. Millions of Internet users urged the FCC to do just that, contacting the agency and their members of Congress to demand open Internet protections. Congress should listen to the public, not industry lobbyists, and let the FCC fulfill its duty to protect the open Internet.
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