Leader Seeks Tech Companies’ Views on Net Neutrality -<br />By CECILIA KANGAPRIL 20, 2017<br />Mr. Pai said that he agreed with the broad principles of net neutrality but<br />that the rules, created by the commission in 2015, went too far in restricting broadband providers.<br />Mr. Pai said on Thursday that he wanted to overturn the declaration of broadband as a utility-like<br />service, which puts stricter rules on broadband providers, akin to what phone services face today.<br />Michael Copps, a former Democratic commissioner, said companies like AT&T and Comcast<br />that have heavily lobbied the commission to roll back rules would directly benefit from the recent actions.<br />A Cisco spokeswoman said Mr. Pai had asked the company’s chief executive, Chuck Robbins,<br />to gather some Silicon Valley leaders to discuss the future of net neutrality.<br />“The public interest suffers, and we are poorer — economically and civically — for it.”<br />In votes split down party lines on Thursday, Mr. Pai pushed forward a plan<br />that will ease standards to allow telecom carriers like AT&T and CenturyLink to raise fees for small businesses, wireless carriers, hospitals and libraries to connect to the main arteries of their broadband networks.<br />“I think they were appreciative,” Mr. Pai said of the tech companies.
