Rosenworcel Wants FCC Probe of If Carriers Broke Keep Americans Connected Pledge
The FCC should investigate reports that carriers disconnected customers after pledging to the FCC they wouldn’t do so during the COVID-19 pandemic, said Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel in a tweet Thursday. “Investigate these complaints. Stat.” The agency is “powerless” to enforce the Keep Americans Connected pledge (see 2003130066), said Gigi Sohn of the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society. The commission “abdicated" authority to do so when it reversed itself on net neutrality, she said. Hundreds of ISPs have taken FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's pledge.
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A Verizon spokesperson rejected reports of disconnections, saying the NBC News story about disconnected services that Rosenworcel referenced was “misleading” and concerned “a handful” of customers disconnected over billing. “We are not aware of a single instance or even a concern raised regarding any NTCA member that took the pledge failing to abide by it,” emailed an NTCA spokesperson. “Our members live and work in the areas they serve, and they’re doing everything they can to keep Americans connected.”
AT&T and Verizon said customers affected by COVID-19 and seeking billing relief need to contact their carriers to take advantage of the policies associated with the pledge. “It's a very simple process that can be done by phone or online. Tens of thousands of Americans have sought and were granted relief,” Verizon said. AT&T gives customers a link through which they can submit a waiver request, a spokesperson said.
An FCC spokesperson didn’t comment on whether the agency could or would pursue the investigation sought by Rosenworcel but said the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau “has been working to ensure that providers are following through with the commitments they made in the pledge.” Many phone companies and broadband providers have “gone beyond the pledge to provide consumers with additional measures to improve connectivity,” the spokesperson emailed.
Wireless broadband is neither a Communications Act Title II service nor subject to price regulation, said telecom lawyers.
Rosenworcel is correct the agency “could investigate these complaints, and look into ISPs' potential lack of transparency and their misleading lack of follow-through on their vaunted pledges,” emailed Free Press Vice President-Policy Matt Wood. “Whether the FCC could take the next step and actually order a stop to disconnections is more complex, but that complexity is all a self-inflicted wound from Chairman Pai's ideological wars and the pretzel-logic his team uses to fight them.”
“The FCC is not in the business of regulating retail rates” and that was true even under the 2015 net neutrality rules, countered Phoenix Center President Lawrence Spiwak: “That’s what we have state PUCs for.” Pai has tried hard but given the complexity of billing systems and the number of subscribers, it’s no surprise that some customers still get cut off, he said. “There are going to be some glitches."
“The FCC could take steps to investigate and name and shame, even if it is the FTC who would have to bring a true enforcement action if companies were not sticking to the pledge,” said Information Technology and Innovation Foundation Broadband and Spectrum Policy Director Doug Brake. “It would be more of an issue for the FTC, if someone believes this was an unfair or deceptive practice,” said Mercatus Center Senior Research Fellow Brent Skorup. He said the issue could merit an FCC or FTC investigation -- if the scale increased to become a widespread problem. If providers made a pledge to the FCC that they aren’t fulfilling, the agency should look into it, he said: “I’m not sure we’re there."