Statement by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler on Broadband Consumers and Internet Congestion

For some time now we have been talking about protecting Internet consumers. At the heart of this is whether Internet Service Providers (ISPs) that provide connectivity in the final mile to the home can advantage or disadvantage content providers, and therefore advantage or disadvantage consumers.

What we call the Open Internet rule on which we are currently seeking comment is one component of this. If adopted, the new rule would prohibit bad acts such as blocking content or degrading access to content.

This kind of activity within an ISP’s network has traditionally been the focus of net neutrality. But there is another area of Internet access, and that is the exchange of traffic between ISPs and other networks and services.

The recent disputes between Netflix and ISPs such as Comcast and Verizon have highlighted this issue. We don’t know the answers and we are not suggesting that any company is at fault. But what is going on and what can the FCC do on behalf of consumers? Consumers pay their ISP and they pay content providers like Hulu, Netflix or Amazon. Then when they don’t get good service they wonder what is going on. Consumers must get what they pay for. As the consumer’s representative we need to know what is going on.

I have therefore directed the Commission staff to obtain the information we need to understand precisely what is happening in order to understand whether consumers are being harmed.


Statement by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler on Broadband Consumers and Internet Congestion The FCC is going to scrutinize Netflix’s deals with Comcast, Verizon -- and others, too (Washington Post) FCC to probe interconnection deals between Internet providers, websites (The Hill) FCC looking into disputes between Netflix and Internet providers (Los Angeles Times) FCC Looking Into Netflix’s Complaints About Verizon, Comcast (Revere Digital) The FCC is investigating Comcast's treatment of Netflix (Vox) FCC to probe Netflix's battle against Internet providers (USAToday) F.C.C. to Investigate Agreements Between Content Companies and Net Service Providers (New York Times) FCC Chairman Wheeler: FCC is Collecting Info on Paid Peering (B&C) FCC Probes Internet Traffic Slowdowns (Wall Street Journal)