Media Contact: 
Mark Wigfield, (202) 418-0253
mark.wigfield@fcc.gov
For Immediate Release
CHAIRMAN PAI STATEMENT ON LETTER FROM 
MUNICIPAL BROADBAND PROVIDERS
  --
WASHINGTON, May 12, 2017.—Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai
issued the following statement today on a letter received yesterday from municipal broadband 
service providers:
“Yesterday, the FCC received an exceptionally important contribution to the debate over 
restoring Internet freedom.  Nineteen non-profit, government-owned Internet service providers 
expressed their support for my proposal to end utility-style regulation of ISPs based on Title II.  
These non-profit ISPs serve small towns across America, from Bagley, Minnesota to Tullahoma, 
Tennessee.  They told us that the FCC’s heavy-handed rules have led them to ‘often delay or hold 
off from rolling out a new feature or service.  As a result, [their] customers lose out on having 
access to innovation and new capabilities.’  They also explained that ‘these rules are so complex 
and so difficult to fathom [that] we must pay lawyers and consultants to provide advice and 
direction to minimize any risk that we will be judged after-the-fact to be out of compliance.’
“On the other hand, these non-profit municipal ISPs explain that my proposal to restore 
Internet freedom ‘will provide real benefits to [their] customer-owners with no downside.’  
Among other things, they say that ‘[t]he cost of regulatory compliance will go down’ and they 
‘will have greater certainty that [their] investments and development of new services and features 
will pay off.’  In sum, a return to light-touch regulation will enable them ‘to invest in enhancing 
[their] networks and [their] deployment of innovative services at affordable prices while still 
ensuring consumers have unfettered access to the Internet.’
“I thank these non-profit ISPs for sharing their perspective on this important issue.  The 
fact that ISPs lacking any profit motive agree that eliminating Title II regulation will benefit 
consumers and promote innovation and investment is a powerful endorsement of reversing the 
FCC’s 2015 Title II Order.”  
###
Office of Chairman Ajit Pai: (202) 418-2000
Twitter: @AjitPaiFCC
www.fcc.gov/leadership/ajit-pai
This is an unofficial announcement of Commission action.  Release of the full text of a Commission order constitutes 
official action.  See MCI v. FCC, 515 F.2d 385 (D.C. Cir. 1974).