http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/13/technology/pressure-mounts-on-fcc-head-over-open-internet-rules.html 2014-11-13 03:38:37 Political and Public Pressure Mounts on F.C.C. Head Over Open Internet Rules As Tom Wheeler tries to thread the needle of politics and public policy, he must also face down members of Congress and a technology industry wary of regulations stifling expansion of the Internet. === WASHINGTON — Even before President Obama issued his His quandary: trying to shape rules for an open Internet, or The challenge only grew after Mr. Obama spoke out, adding a more potent political element to the debate. Since those remarks, say people who met with Mr. Wheeler this week, he has been testy, defensive and a bit angry that he might be seen as a political pawn instead of as the head of an independent agency who is exercising his own judgment. Mr. Wheeler has not yet decided on how to proceed, F.C.C. officials say. But as he tries to thread the needle of politics and public policy to safeguard the openness of the Internet, he must now also face down angry Republicans in Congress and a technology industry, generally supportive of the president, that is wary of any regulations stifling the expansion of the Internet. Republicans in Congress AT&T; said it would pause its planned investments in high-speed fiber-optic broadband networks at least until the F.C.C. decides how it will regulate Internet service. “We can’t go out and invest that kind of money deploying fiber to 100 cities not knowing under what rules those investments will be governed,” Randall L. Stephenson, AT&T;’s chief executive, said at an investment conference in New York on Wednesday. A recent According to the poll, 81 percent of those questioned said they opposed or strongly opposed paid prioritization. The poll, which has a margin of error of 3 percentage points, found Republicans and Democrats opposed to the practice in roughly equivalent proportions. Mr. Wheeler, 68, who was appointed by Mr. Obama But two months after he took office, a federal appeals court threw out the commission’s Open Internet rules adopted in 2010 under the previous chairman, Julius Genachowski. Those rules imposed disclosure, antiblocking and antidiscrimination requirements on broadband providers. The court found that while the commission had “general authority to regulate in this arena,” its rules treated broadband providers as common carriers — the equivalent of a utility — when it had previously classified broadband as exempt from that treatment. President Obama said that the commission should reverse that exemption and reclassify broadband as a common carrier under Title II of the Communications Act. Mr. Wheeler had been But Mr. Wheeler was leaning toward a lighter-touch approach for the relationship between consumers and their broadband companies when Mr. Obama made his statement, calling for the whole system to be reclassified under Title II. Shortly after Mr. Obama’s call for stronger regulation, Mr. Wheeler held a previously scheduled meeting with Internet companies, including Google and Yahoo, and lawyers and trade groups representing them. At the meeting, Mr. Wheeler said that he had not yet made a decision on how to proceed, according to people at the meeting who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect their relationship with the chairman. And he hinted, the people said, that the F.C.C. would need more time — months, at least — to gather adequate comment and write the rules in a manner that they could not be overturned in court. Some in attendance seemed to believe that Mr. Wheeler disagreed with Mr. Obama’s approach. F.C.C. officials flatly denied that on Wednesday. “There was absolutely nothing he said that indicated that he was going to diverge from the president,” said Gigi Sohn, who serves as special counsel for external affairs to Mr. Wheeler and who was at the meeting. “What he said was all options are on the table.” Greg Schneider, the national economy and business editor for The Post, said the paper made a small change to the article after publication, after hearing from the F.C.C. — making it more clear that Mr. Wheeler’s position was a nuanced one before Mr. Obama’s remarks. “Otherwise, we stand by our reporting and stand by the story,” Mr. Schneider said. Even President Obama conceded that a strict Title II approach would not by itself be sufficient because there are hundreds of rules applying to telephone service common carriers that would be inappropriate to apply to broadband, like, for example, rate regulation. In addition, even Title II does not ban paid prioritization completely. Rick Boucher, a former Democratic congressman from Virginia who now heads the Internet Innovation Alliance, a nonprofit group that opposes adoption of Title II, points out that some Internet applications, like Skype and videoconferencing applications, need to be prioritized; they quickly become unusable if they get caught in Internet traffic jams. Mr. Boucher says he believes the F.C.C. can accomplish those goals without Title II. Whatever decision Mr. Wheeler ends up reaching, the heat is increasing for him to make it quickly. Gene Kimmelman, president of Public Knowledge, a consumer advocacy group that supports Mr. Obama’s prescription, said Wednesday that the commission has already spent months gathering opinions and data. “It’s time for the F.C.C. to take immediate action to declare broadband a Title II service,” Mr. Kimmelman said, “and work quickly to resolve all open legal and analytical questions the commission believes deserve more attention.”