Wheeler Talks Up Preemption

FCC chairman Tom Wheeler says he has big questions about whether cable operators and telcos will continue to make competitive broadband upgrades or offer consumers at least two options for broadband, which is one reason why he went the Title II route in adopting new Open Internet rules and went the preemption route in the cases of municipal broadband buildouts in two states.

That came in a speech Tuesday at the Broadband Communities Summit in Austin, Texas.

"Despite good news in places like Austin, the days of telcos and cable assuring consumers at least two competitive choices for Internet access are in doubt," he said.

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John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.