Op-Ed: Net neutrality is truly dead — that's bad news for the FCC and consumers

• The FCC's inability to regulate broadband providers means the agency is quickly being gutted of its powers
• And that seems to suit the incoming FCC Chairman, Brendan Carr, just fine
• But then whom can broadband consumers look to when they have problems with their providers?

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals today ruled against the Federal Communication Commission’s attempt to reinstate net neutrality. The decision puts perhaps the final nail in the coffin for open internet regulation. And that's bad news, not just for consumers, but also the FCC.

Circuit Judge Richard Griffin wrote the opinion, which he kicked off by saying the Court agreed with Congress which has said the internet has “flourished, to the benefit of all Americans, with a minimum of government regulation.”

But I would ask: is the internet really flourishing? It may have flourished for the first 20 years as it grew up, but have you tried doing a Google search lately? Instead of getting search results ranked in order of relevance, you get something like this:

• Sponsored content
• Sponsored content
• Sponsored content
• An AI-generated “summary” of material from un-attributed sources, which Google may have stolen from copyrighted news articles
• A list of AI-generated questions with un-attributed answers
• Perhaps a module of information from Reddit (because Google struck a partnership deal with Reddit)

The first page of many Google searches is now total garbage where you don’t get your questions answered. You usually must move on to page 2 in hopes of any real search results with named sources.

And you can’t even get the most basic information. I recently wanted to call an auto store at a particular location in my city. My Google search was so useless it had me yearning for the days of the Yellow Pages.

Now there's nothing stopping broadband providers from adopting the same kind of paid prioritization scheme.

Broken broadband

It’s not just Google search that seems broken. Broadband providers, which FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel wanted to regulate via net neutrality, have some serious customer service issues.

Have you had any reason to call your internet service provider lately? If so, you’ve probably been caught in an AI-generated-phone-tree nightmare.

I had to call my broadband service provider recently because I was still paying my monthly bill via check and snail mail. I wanted to put this bill on autopay, like all my other bills. But the provider (which I shall mercifully not name) made it SO HARD. 

I tried to make the request via the provider’s online portal, but it kept glitching. I would fill out all the required fields complete with sensitive bank-router information, and then when I hit “submit” I got an error message. This forced me to call the provider's 1-800 number where I got caught in a voicemail loop that was hell-bent on not letting me speak to a real person. And each time I tried to verify my identity, an authentication number would be sent to my husband, because he was the named account holder. 

Unfortunately, my husband was not home at the time, so I was frantically texting him to get the authentication numbers. This saga continued with multiple such problems to the point I was practically tearing my hair and gnashing my teeth in a Biblical sense.

And all of this pain and agony was so that I could sign up for autopay – which benefits the provider!

Toothless

One reason the Rosenworcel FCC wanted to classify broadband providers as Title II carriers with its net neutrality rules was so the FCC could regulate these providers for the benefit of consumers. The FCC’s authority has become outdated under the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The agency’s authority covers telcos, but these providers have since morphed into broadband providers, over which the FCC has little authority.

In the Sixth Circuit’s ruling today it wrote, “We hold that Broadband Internet Service Providers offer only an 'information service' under 47 U.S.C. § 153(24), and therefore, the FCC lacks the statutory authority to impose its desired net neutrality policies.”

I take this ruling to mean that the FCC is quickly losing its regulatory power. If the FCC can’t regulate broadband, what types of companies can it regulate?

In response to the ruling today, Rosenworcel issued the following statement: “Consumers across the country have told us again and again that they want an internet that is fast, open and fair.  With this decision it is clear that Congress now needs to heed their call, take up the charge for net neutrality and put open internet principles in federal law.”

Translation: If net neutrality is ever to be resurrected again, it will have to be done so by Congress. And how much time does Congress realistically have to deal with such a thing when it hasn’t even been able to pass a complete budget for months?

Ironically, incoming FCC Chair Brendan Carr is celebrating the gutting of FCC power. His statement today is entitled, “Carr Welcomes Court Order Invalidating President Biden’s Plan to Expand Government Control of the Internet Through Title II Regulations.”

I suppose Carr is looking forward to overseeing telcos, which are basically a non-existent category of company these days.

Of course, today’s ruling is being celebrated by the broadband and mobile industries, because they don’t like government regulation.

A joint statement from a large group of telecom trade associations said, “Today’s ruling confirming that broadband internet access is an ‘information service’ is not only the proper reading of the statute but a victory for American consumers that will lead to more investment, innovation and competition in the dynamic digital marketplace. Since the birth of the internet, bipartisan Administrations and policymakers have recognized the virtues of a light-touch approach to broadband regulation.”

ACA Connects President and CEO Grant Spellmeyer wrote, “Our fight to stop the government’s unwarranted internet takeover has resulted in a major victory for ACA Connects Members. They can now strengthen their focus on offering people faster speeds, more affordable prices and quality service without the threat of utility-style Federal regulations hampering their investments.”

What does the future hold?

The people of the U.S. recently elected Donald Trump as president (again), and he, along with many representatives of his party, wants to diminish the powers of regulatory agencies. We’re a democracy, and the people have voted. So it shall be.

This means the FCC will have a limited role in protecting broadband consumers from bad customer service and monopolistic search engines. Congress can act. But Congress is becoming responsible for an enormous amount of governing that was previously delegated to expert agencies.

So next time your internet is down or you can’t get your customer service problem resolved with your broadband provider, write a letter to your Congressman, I guess. And the same applies to service providers. The next time they need some ruling from the FCC to resolve a dispute, or help them with rate regulation or to hold a spectrum auction, they might also have to write a letter to their Congressman.