With Joe Biden set to become the next president come January, a lot of changes are on the way for many executive agencies, including the Federal Communications Commission. Current FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is set to leave his post on January 20th, but Biden’s team could learn a thing or two from him as they look to continue his work in solving many of the connectivity issues the country faces going into 2021.
One thing a Biden FCC should avoid is an attempt to revisit net neutrality. The doomsday predictions made when Pai reversed the net neutrality rules never came to fruition. The internet did not stop existing, people were not getting the internet “one word at a time,” and streaming services did not experience additional lag in delivering their service to consumers. A return to the heavy-handed Title II regulatory framework would create problems. The added regulatory weight might result in less investment in broadband deployment and present troubles for companies trying to work to bridge the digital divide in rural America — a task essential to reviving the schools and economies across the nation that have been battered by the pandemic. Additionally, 5G innovation might be hindered by the rule change, which could set the country back in its technological race against China and could harm the development of technologies dependent on broadband innovation.
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