FCC Open Internet Docket Heats Up

The FCC's open Internet docket is starting to fill up with new comments, according to the FCC's online list of the most active proceedings.

It remains number three on the top 10 list with 402 comments in the past 30 days. That is still way below the 992 Lifeline subsidy program compliance filings in that last 30 days and the 1,246 filings on the high-cost fund, both of those related to the Universal Service Fund for broadband subsidies.

But it is the busiest docket since last week, when some Democratic members of Congress called on the public to begin flooding the FCC again with support for retaining the Title II-based Open Internet order.

There have been over 200 comments logged since last week (there were 178 as of Feb. 9)

By contrast, the two USF dockets only logged 68 new comments combined.

Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) said that pushback on any potential rollback of Title II by new FCC chairman Ajit Pai would make the 4 million-plus comments filed on net neutrality previously look minuscule by comparison.

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.