FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION 
W ASHINGTON 
OFFICE OF 
THE CHAIRMAN 
The Honorable Niki Tsongas 
U.S. I louse of Representatives 
1607 Longworth House Office Building 
Washington, D.C. 20515 
Dear Congresswoman Tsongas: 
March 26, 2015 
Thank you for your letters ofDecember 15,2014, December 18,2014 and February 3, 
2015 expressing support for strong Open Internet rules grounded in our authority under Title II 
of the Communications Act. You also expressed specific concern regarding the need for 
platform parity between fixed and mobile connections, owing the significant role mobile services 
play in providing Internet access across the digital divide. I appreciate hearing your views, and 
your letter will be included in the record . 
Over the past year, l have come to believe that there are tluˇee simple keys to our 
broadband future. Our broadband networks must be fast; our broadband networks must be fair; 
and our broadband networks must be open. On February 26, 2015, the Federal Communications 
Commission (FCC) voted to approve new rules designed to preserve the Internet as an open 
platform for innovation, investment, and free expression. Utilizing the combined authority of 
Title II of the Communications Act and Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act, these rules 
are rooted in long-standing regulatory principles, marketplace experience, and public input 
received over the last year. This Order represents the most open rulemaking in history and is 
based on months of listening to the views of policymakers outside the Commission, industry and 
public interest representatives, and millions of American consumers from all walks of life. 
Based on the input of all these stakeholders, the FCC adopted the strongest poss ible open 
Internet protections. Specifically, we established bright-line rules banning paid prioritization, 
blocking, and throttling of legal content, along with a general conduct rul e that can be used to 
stop new and novel threats to the Internet as they develop. Importantly, and consistent with the 
approach you support in your letter, these rules apply to both fixed and mobile broadband 
Internet access services. For the first time, mobile connections will be subject to the same 
bright-line bans on paid prioritization, blocking, and throttling, that apply to fixed broadband 
services. The approach we take in this Order provides clear rules of the road for all stakeholders. 
while ensuring there is also a referee in place to keep things fair in the future . 
Strong rules need to be grounded in strong authority, and these rules are grounded in the 
strongest authority the FCC can utili ze: a modernized application ofTitle II of the 
Communications Act, combined with ection 706 of the Telecommunications Act. I refer to this 
application ofTitle II as "modernized" because we have used the forbearance authority granted 
to us by Congress to ensure that we are not applying unreasonable conditions to these modern 
networks. In particular, the Order forbears from 27 provisions of Title II and more than 700 
FCC rules and regulations. This forbearance is targeted to avoid major issues like rate regulation, 
Page 2- The Honorable Niki Tsongas 
tariffing, and network unbundling, which would not be appropriate for the broadband Internet 
access industry, and is designed to preserve incentives for continued investment in broadband 
networks. 
The FC'C's new rules, grounded in ~trong Title II authority and applied to both fixed and 
mobik connect10ns, carry the supp01t of millions of Americans, and are poised to keep the 
Internet open and free for consumers and mnovators for years to come. 
I appreciate your interest in this matter. Please kt me know if I can be of any further 
assistance. 
Tom Wheeler