Legislators Pushes FCC to Extend Open Internet Order Transparency Waiver

A bipartisan, bicameral group of legislators has asked Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler to extend the waiver the FCC granted to smaller cable operators in 2015 from the enhanced transparency requirements in the FCC's Open Internet Order. Those smaller operators have argued that the reporting—on network performance particularly—are an undue burden.

The FCC's Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau granted the waiver in 2015 for systems under 100,000 subscribers and there were bills in the House and Senate to do the same, while upping the sub trigger to 250,000. But the bills did not make it into law, and the waiver expires Dec. 15 unless the FCC takes action. The legislators—including incoming House Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) and Sen Joe Manchin (D-WV)—urged the chairman to extend the waiver. "Without commission action, small businesses soon face regulatory uncertainty and will potentially be subject to burdensome requirements," they wrote. "Before the current extension expires, the Commission should extend the enhanced transparency exemption and begin the process of considering whether the definition of small business entities to which the exemption applies should be modified [i.e. expanded to match Congress' 250,000 or perhaps another figure]."