FCC reinstating net neutrality could slow internet gains: report

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is preparing to vote Thursday on reinstating net neutrality regulations for the internet, which a new report warns could cause a slowdown in the pace of internet speed increases and price improvements seen in the years since net neutrality's repeal.

The FCC, which currently has a majority of Democrat appointees under the Biden administration, is planning to bring back net neutrality rules that allow the agency to regulate broadband internet access as a telecommunications service. That would return the FCC's framework for regulating the internet to what the Obama administration put in place in 2015, which was later rolled back by the Trump administration in 2017 under a framework that classified the internet as an information service.

A Committee to Unleash Prosperity report notes the gains in internet speed and cost decreases that occurred in the wake of the Trump-era deregulation as well as the increased investment by internet service providers.