Under Trump the future of Net Neutrality and broadband is uncertain
With an anti-regulation crusader on his
transition team, the FCC's Net Neutrality rules will likely be gutted.
On January 20th, Donald Trump will be sworn
in as president of the United States. With a Republican-controlled House and
Senate behind him, things in this country are going to change... a lot. One of
the things that might be on the chopping block early in his administration is Net
Neutrality.
This is obviously an issue near and dear to
our hearts here at Engadget, and it's pretty safe to assume that the rules
instituted by the FCC in 2015 will be gutted by a Trump administration. In
2014, he described the concept as a "top down
power grab" that "will target the conservative media," and
compared it to the Fairness
Doctrine -- referring to the FCC rule eliminated in 1987 that required
broadcasters to present contrasting views on topics of public interest. While
it might be tempting to dismiss those vaguely paranoid sounding declarations as
simple Twitter bluster, it's unlikely to be an issue that flies under the radar
once he moves into the White House.
Tony Romm at Politico
reported that Trump will be appointing Jeffrey Eisenach as the point man
for telecom issues on his transition team. Eisenach has made a career out of
crusading against industry regulation. He's spent the last several years at the
conservative American Enterprise Institute and has authored several papers and
op-ed pieces that were funded
by Net Neutrality opponents like Engadget's parent company Verizon.
Once gutted, there's little hope that even a
weakened version of Net Neutrality could find itself enshrined in law under a
President Trump. One of the few concrete policies he's proposed is a moratorium
on new regulations from government agencies.
His fight against industry regulation will
also limit the expansion of broadband in America. As a candidate, his plan to
push high-speed internet deeper into the rural areas of the country and bring
the cost down for low-income households has been vague at best. Efforts like
these largely rely on regulations, tax breaks and government programs to
incentivize businesses to build out infrastructure and subsidize costs for the
poor.
Connect America Fund, Rural Utilities Service
program and Broadband Technology Opportunities Program were core to Hillary
Clinton's goal of giving 100 percent of households access to affordable
broadband by 2020. But government programs like these face an uncertain future
and likely funding cuts under the new administration. And these decisions won't
just impact the reach of broadband for the next four years but potentially for
decades to come.
That said, Trump has promised to invest in
infrastructure though not broadband specifically. And there's a chance that by
lowering regulatory walls and offering tax incentives a Trump administration
could lure companies to build out broadband in rural areas, but these moves
will do little to reduce costs. And with those pesky Net Neutrality rules out
of the way, it will be possible for providers to charge higher fees to
consumers while actively putting competitors at a disadvantage. As the walls
between service providers and content creators crumble, Net Neutrality rules
become more important than ever. But under a President Trump those are unlikely
to survive.
Source: engadget
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