Hope for Sustainable Title II Reversal Starting to 'Unravel,' Analyst Moffett Says
The "Title II-reversal story" that helped cable stocks rally "has begun to unravel," said analyst Craig Moffett of MoffettNathanson Thursday. He noted he upgraded cable stocks after the Republican election victory on the expectation that Title II would be reversed,…
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preferably through legislation to mandate net neutrality principles and clarify agency authority. But Republicans used the "nuclear option" and pushed through a Congressional Review Act resolution to repeal the FCC's broadband privacy rules, he said. "Unfortunately, that scorched-Earth strategy appears now to have been a terrible miscalculation," Moffett wrote. "Predictably, ramming the ISP Privacy reversal down the throats of the Democrats poisoned the well for any cooperation on telecom matters, let alone something as politically volatile as Net Neutrality or Title II." He noted the FCC has proposed to reverse the Title II reclassification and return to Title I broadband, but whether it will "have the stomach to follow through in the face of what is likely to be absolutely withering opposition is unclear." Even if the FCC does roll back Title II, "it would be a temporary solution at best," given legal questions about net neutrality under Title I, and the possibility that a return to Title II "would simply be one Democratic FCC away," he wrote.