Net Neutrality Rules Will Torpedo Efforts to Close Digital Divide: NCTA's Powell
To close the digital divide, the government must decrease the risk broadband network operators face in building in rural areas, but the FCC's net neutrality rulemaking is "a regulatory roadblock ... that will worsen a hard problem and discourage participation…
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among the entities needed to wire America," NCTA President Michael Powell blogged Tuesday. "Revived [net neutrality] rules will destabilize the regulatory environment as challenges drag on for years in the courts," and the lack of clarity "is a challenging environment to take on risky builds," he said. The FCC's regulatory power over broadband provision, including the ability to set prices, "will erode interest in investing the large sums of private money required to match government funds," he said. "While reviving net neutrality will check a partisan political box, it risks blowing our once-in-a-lifetime chance to get all Americans the internet access they deserve."