Net Neutrality Comments: One Million-Plus and Counting

The FCC has gotten more than a million pieces of advice on how to recraft Open Internet rules, more than on any other single rulemaking proposal.

As of noon Friday, the commission said it had received 1,057,000 comments combining both the docket for the rule proposal and the separate e-mail box the FCC set up to collect even more input, which are also going into the docket.

It drew more input following the Janet Jackson Super Bowl reveal (1.4 million), which are also expressions of interest, but that was not a docketed proceeding.

It probably has more total comments on media ownership dereg, but that is divided among at least five dockets, according to an FCC source.

The second-largest docket in terms of comments is the Universal Service Fund docket at 236,315, but that has been open since 1996, while the network neutrality rule revamp docket has only been open since February of this year.

Friday (July 16) is the deadline for initial comments, but there are still reply comments and responses to those, stretching into September.

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.