Despite new Federal Communications Commission chairman Ajit Pai’s stated dedication to protecting net neutrality rules, the commission under his leadership voted Thursday to exempt “small” carriers from transparency rules that require greater disclosures to customers.
Under the new order issued by the FCC, internet service providers with fewer than 250,000 subscribers will be exempt from transparency rules that require home and wireless carriers to detail fees included on a customer’s bill.
The rules require companies to provide details on the full monthly service charge, including any disclosures for promotional prices and limited-time offers; one-time and recurring fees, surcharges, any other fees that may apply; and any data caps, along with any consequences for exceeding those caps.
When the rules were originally passed in February 2015, it offered a temporary exemption to service providers with 100,000 or fewer subscribers. That exemption was set to expire in December 2016.
Now, not only will the exemption from transparency requirements be extended for five years, providing cover for carriers from disclosing any service fees and data cap limitations through 2022, but it also will grant the same exemption to carriers with up to a quarter-million subscribers.
The FCC voted to pass the proposal—which was first introduced late last month —on 2-1 party lines, with the two Republican members on board supporting the motion while the one remaining Democratic commissioner opposed the decision. The decision was framed by the board as a move to “protect small businesses from needless regulation.”
In a statement, the FCC declared the order would provide relief to “thousands of smaller broadband providers” from what the commission called “onerous reporting obligations stemming from the 2015 Title II Order.” According to the FCC, the move will free carriers to “devote more resources to operating, improving and building out their networks.”
Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, the lone Democrat remaining on the board since the start of the Donald Trump administration, voiced her concern over the decision, stating, “the mere existence of data can act as an insurance policy against bad behavior. Today, we are cancelling that policy.”
Clyburn said many of the smaller carriers that will be granted exemption under the order may have fewer than 250,000 subscribers but are subsidiaries of much larger companies who will now be free from disclosing information to their customers on smaller networks.
Clyburn said the White House’s Office of Management and Budget found the process of complying with the transparency rule would take broadband providers about 6.8 hours each year; the FCC provided a nutrition label-style template last year to streamline the process further.
Democratic Senator Ed Markey of Mass. offered an aggressive condemnation of the FCC’s decision, stating, “by granting this carve out for the broadband industry, the FCC has made pricing and performance information less accessible to small businesses and consumers. Consumers deserve truth in pricing information.”
According to Markey, 9.7 million internet subscribers in the United States may lose access to information about their internet plans.