Danny McAuliffe
The chief legal adviser to the Federal Communications Commission believes it’s incumbent upon the panel to be humble in its regulatory approach.
During Friday remarks before the Economic Club of Florida, FCC General Counsel Thomas Johnson said “humility” is essential in order to learn from prior failings and adapt to the ever-evolving communications-technology landscape.
Above all else, Johnson said, the FCC has a duty “to promote innovation, investment and competition” in such technologies.
“Communities and individuals who lack reliable access to computers and the internet are going to be left behind in terms of educational and professional development,” Johnson said.
As general counsel, Johnson reviews rules drafted by the Commission and oversees their effects in court. In that capacity, Johnson said he’s become “keenly aware” of the importance of providing Americans access to communications technology.
Once adopted, “federal rules have this uncanny ability” to stick, Johnson said. Meanwhile, technological development in the private sector is the opposite.
“It’s much more dynamic,” Johnson said, referencing tech companies’ product development. “It responds rapidly to consumer preferences and it benefits from day-to-day trial and error experimentation.”
And, according to Johnson, the FCC doesn’t want to disrupt that.
In the past, some examples of “far-sighted and short-sighted regulations” played out accordingly.
When the concept of cell phones first emerged decades ago, the FCC failed to envision a future in which millions of Americans used the handheld devices.
The FCC “decided it knew best how important cellular technology was going to be,” Johnson said. Determining that phones were more of a “luxury convenience” rather than an everyday tool led the commission to limit their practicality, he explained.
In contrast, when regulators were later tasked with developing rules navigating the internet, “they had the ability to recognize that perhaps this emerging market did not require heavy-handed government regulation to benefit consumers,” according to Johnson.
The FCC had adopted for the internet a “light-touch, market-based, regulatory regime,” Johnson said.
In the backdrop of Johnson’s discussion was the FCC’s December 2017 repeal of a 2015 rule that provided for “net neutrality.” In essence, the rule prevented internet companies from charging different prices for, or prioritizing, web usage.
Before it’s repeal, Johnson said, there were fewer internet service providers for smaller, rural areas — inhibiting “free and open internet.”
Johnson later said that FCC Chairman Ajit Pai believed the 2015 rule “chilled” development and investment in internet-based technology.
“By returning to that light-touch, regulatory framework, the (FCC) made a determination that that will spur innovation and investment in these markets,” said Johnson.
