Radio News: Wheeler Hedges on Net Neutrality

Dec 04, 2013: 12am- 12:05 am
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Ted Johnson in Variety magazine reports new Federal Communications Commission chairman Tom Wheeler says he supports net neutrality rules, but left room for Internet providers to be able to charge users based on the amount of bandwidth they use. Wheeler gave his first policy speech, and then answered questions, Dec. 2, at Ohio State University (watch full video here). Net neutrality is defined as not being usage-based pricing. In the speech Wheeler said that, “we are seeing the market evolve in such a way that there will be variations in pricing, there will be variations in service.... I am a firm believer in the market. I think we’re also going to see a two-sided market where Netflix might say, ‘Well, I’ll pay to make sure that my subscriber receives the best possible transmission of this movie.’ I think we want to let those kinds of things evolve, and we want to observe what happens from that and we want to make decisions accordingly. I go back to the fact that the marketplace is where these decisions ought to be made, and the functionality of a competitive marketplace dictates the degree of regulation.” Also in the session, Wheeler said that the “number one issue” he has is the preparations for a spectrum auction, with broadcasters giving up public airwaves and sharing in the proceeds of an auction to wireless firms. Read the full story in Variety.