“No secret instructions” from Obama to FCC, Wheeler tells Congress Obama influenced net neutrality decision, but so did 4 million public comments.

The roadmap we followed to develop this order was a process that Congress established close to 70 years ago in the Administrative Procedure Act. We made a public proposal, we invited interested parties to comment on our proposal—which they did in record numbers—and then we adopted a final rule based on this record. The final result of this year-long process is rules that protect and preserve the open Internet, while promoting continued investment in broadband networks. 

One was the recognition of interconnection as an important issue—a topic not covered by the Administration’s position. Another was my letter to Verizon Wireless about its announcement to limit “unlimited” data customers if the subscriber went over a certain amount of data used in a month, a policy it ultimately reversed. Of particular note was the active bidding (and ultimately overwhelming success) of the AWS-3 spectrum auction at the end of 2014 and the beginning of 2015, which showed that investment in networks—even in the face of the potential classification of mobile Internet access under Title II—continued to flourish. Other industry data points included the work of Wall Street analysts, and the statements of ISPs themselves, including Sprint, T-Mobile, Frontier, and hundreds of small rural carriers, that they would continue to invest under a Title II framework.

Ultimately, the collective findings of the public record influenced the evolution of my thinking and the final conclusion that modern, light-touch Title II reclassification, accompanied by Section 706, provides the strongest foundation for the Open Internet rules. Using this authority, we adopted strong and balanced protections that assure the rights of Internet users to go where they want, when they want, protect the open Internet as a level playing field for innovators and entrepreneurs, and preserve the economic incentives for ISPs to invest in fast and competitive broadband networks.