FCC's Sohn: Title II Shouldn't Adversely Impact Small Cable Operators

Gigi Sohn, a top aide to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler, said that the FCC’s Title II order was a light-touch approach to new regulations that should not have any adverse impact on smaller cable operators. That came in a discussion with American Cable Association executive Ross Lieberman at the association’s annual summit in Washington.

Sohn said the Chairman believes that “Light-touch Title II is not going to affect your businesses in any negative way.” She said the FCC is not applying 27 of 43 provisions, and the ones it is applying are on things like privacy protections, protections against billing fraud, and protections for the disabled. She said she hoped they could all agree those were important values, and as cable operators they were subject to privacy protections already. “I don’t want to be so glib as to say these are 'sleeves off the vest,’ because they are requirements,” she said, “but I don’t think you will find them burdensome.”