In news that will be no surprise to Mark Cuban, Obama’s vision for regulating the internet comes with a hefty price tag.
The White House plan to reclassify the internet under Title II of the Communications Act would cost consumers $17 billion in new user fees, according to a study from the Progressive Policy Institute.
And that’s not counting the “adverse impact on consumers of less investment and slower innovation that would result from reclassification.”
Looking at state and local fees that would apply, in Alabama the cost of broadband could rise by $55, while parts of Alaska could see as much as an $148 increase.
Obama released his net neutrality plan last month, highlighting his support for reclassifying service providers like Comcast and Verizon under Title II of the Communications Act and treating the internet like a utility for the first time in history.
“Once ISPs are labeled ‘telecommunications providers’ under Title II,” the PPI study reads, “their services become subject to both federal and state fees that apply to those services.”
Tallying these potential new fees, researchers first calculated the average annual increase in state and local fees on wireline and wireless broadband: $67 and $72. The annual increase in federal fees for each household would amount to $17. In total, that brought the number to $17 billion in new user fees.
Even some proponents of net neutrality oppose Title II classification as the means of regulating the net. PPI notes this, and argues that Title II classification does not even achieve President Obama’s stated goals. Title II is irrelevant to preventing the “fast lanes” that Obama is concerned about, for example.
(h/t The Hill)
