If the FCC leadership wasn’t changing hands, the Notice of Inquiry could be the first step toward a rulemaking. “We cannot ignore these complaints, especially not when we know that it is possible to do better… We want to help improve the customer experience, understand what tools we have to do so, and what gaps there may be in the law that prevent consumers from having the ability to resolve routine problems quickly, simply, and easily,” Rosenworcel said.
ISPs have a friend in Trump admin
But the proceeding won’t go any further under incoming Chairman Brendan Carr, a Republican chosen by President-elect Donald Trump. Carr dissented from the Notice of Inquiry, saying that the potential actions explored by the FCC exceed its authority and that the topic should be handled instead by the Federal Trade Commission.
Carr said the FCC should work instead on “freeing up spectrum and eliminating regulatory barriers to deployment” and that the Notice of Inquiry is part of “the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts to deflect attention away from the necessary course correction.”
Carr has made it clear that he is interested in regulating broadcast media and social networks more than the telecom companies the FCC traditionally focuses on. Carr wrote a chapter for the conservative Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 in which he criticized the FCC for “impos[ing] heavy-handed regulation rather than relying on competition and market forces to produce optimal outcomes.”
With Carr at the helm, ISPs are likely to get what they’re asking for: No new regulations and elimination of at least some current rules. “Rather than saddling communications providers with unnecessary, unlawful, and potentially harmful regulation, the Commission should encourage the pro-consumer benefits of competition by reducing the regulatory burdens and disparities that are currently unfairly skewing the marketplace,” the NCTA told the FCC, arguing that cable companies face more onerous regulations than other communications providers.