FCC chief asks that ?...we must think anew, and act anew.?

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler came out today with a robust – almost fighting – speech on the role of the FCC, delivered to the lawyers at U Colorado’s Silicon Flatirons center for law and technology.

Wheeler seemed undeterred by last month’s DC appeals court decision that validated the FCC's authority to regulate Internet access, but invalidated some of the FCC’s Open Internet (net neutrality) rules. Wheeler said that the FCC, “has  the  authority  it needs to provide  what the public needs – open, competitive, safe, and  accessible broadband networks. Indeed,  that  we have  authority  is well-settled. What  remains open  is not jurisdiction, but rather  the best  path to securing the public interest.”

As an analysis from Stifel Research observed, “Mr.  Wheeler’s comments  suggest  to  us  he  probably   doesn’t  intend   to  appeal  the  D.C.  Circuit  panel’s decision overturning the FCC’s no-blocking  and  anti-discrimination rules  because he believes it can  still accomplish core  goals, and  we  also  believe  an  appeal would  put  the  agency’s jurisdiction  at  risk.”

In addition, Wheeler called for a new approach to telecom legislation. When Congress last updated the communications law, Wheeler pointed out, “the world’s fastest supercomputer cost $55 million to develop and was roughly the size of a tennis court.” Today, Sony’s PlayStation 3 is as powerful as that supercomputer of nine years ago.

“As is obvious to this expert audience,” he said, “changes in technology, business models, and consumer preferences have presented us with circumstances that are radically different from those that prevailed a generation ago.” He quoted from Abraham Lincoln’s second address to Congress. “As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew.”

But, Wheeler said, we can’t just sit and wait for the long and complex problem of reforming the communications laws.

“We have an obligation to act now with the principles that have been transmitted to us in the form of statutes, judicial and regulatory precedents, scholarship, and experience... The Network Compact – universal accessibility, interconnection, public safety, and consumer protection – constitute the things we have to promote and protect if we are to be faithful to the public interest imperative.”

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler Remarks at Silicon Flatirons (FCC, Feb. 10, 2014)

Wheeler Touts FCC Broadband Authority To Ensure Open Internet Under Ruling (Stifel Research, Feb. 10, 2014)