FCC Commissioner Clyburn: No Qualms About Title II

Commissioner Mignon Clyburn of the Federal Communications Commission said she had no qualms about voting to reclassify Internet access under Title II regulations. She pointed out, as she did in her comments before the Feb. 26 vote, that she was for Title II back in 2010, when the FCC under then Chairman Julius Genachowski voted instead to use Sec. 706 authority and a legal underpinning that was unpinned by the US0 Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. "I had no reservations in moving in this direction because I felt it was the strongest legally sustainable framework," including applying the rules to mobile broadband, which she said was key to achieving mobile parity.

Commissioner Clyburn said one of the things she was concerned about was smaller carriers, who said some of the new rules might be burdensome, so the FCC provided a carve-out, at least temporarily, from some of the enhanced transparency rules. Smaller operators represented by the American Cable Association said that while they appreciated that, it provided "virtually no solace for smaller [Internet service provider]s that will be swept under by a tsunami of new and totally alien regulatory requirements contained in the final Order."