1Debunking Chairman Pai’s Claims about Net Neutrality
Prepared by the Office of FCC Commissioner Clyburn
November 30, 2017
As an unwavering champion of net neutrality, FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn believes in 
setting the record straight. Chairman Pai made a number of claims and predictions in his dissent 
from the FCC’s 2015 Open Internet Order. 
Just how good were the Chairman’s predictions? Let’s take a closer look:
Chairman Pai: The 2015 Open Internet Order seizes unilateral authority to regulate Internet 
conduct, to direct where Internet service providers put their investments, and to determine what 
service plans will be available to the American public.
False. The Order in fact kept your broadband provider from blocking, throttling (slowing down), 
paving tollways on their network or at the point of interconnection, and interfering with the 
ability of content and customers to reach one another. No regulation of the Internet writ large
(this is clear and obvious), no investment prescription, and no service plan determinations.
Chairman Pai: It is a radical departure from the bipartisan, market-oriented policies that have 
served us so well for the past few decades.
False. In fact, Republican Chairmen have supported substantive net neutrality protections, that 
is, up until this Administration.
Chairman Pai: Courts will not countenance this unlawful power grab.
False. The D.C. Circuit twice upheld the 2015 Order and rejected all of the statutory 
interpretation arguments Chairman Pai raised in his dissent (which he raises again in the draft 
Destroying Internet Freedom Order).
Chairman Pai: The Order will countenance price regulation.
False. No broadband prices have been regulated in the years since the Order was adopted. Nor 
were any mobile voice prices regulated in the decades in which the same framework applied to 
mobile voice service.
Chairman Pai: The conduct rules give the FCC a roving mandate to upend pricing plans that 
benefit consumers.
False. No pricing plans were ever upended.
2Chairman Pai: Decisions about network architecture and design will no longer be in the hands 
of engineers but bureaucrats and lawyers.
False. Decisions about network architecture and design have remained firmly in the hands of 
engineers. No FCC action has ever mandated Internet network design.
Chairman Pai: If an ISP wants to follow in the footsteps of Google Fiber and enter the market 
incrementally, the FCC may say no.
False. No broadband entry regulation has been imposed by the FCC.
Chairman Pai: The FCC’s forbearance from multiple provisions of Title II and regulations is 
temporary.
False. The FCC has not undone any forbearance granted in the Order.
Chairman Pai: There will be new broadband universal service fees assessed.
False. No new broadband universal service fees have been assessed.
Chairman Pai: There will be slower broadband speeds.
False. Broadband speeds have continued to increase amid new investment by broadband 
providers.
Now you decide how good these predictions were.
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Office of Commissioner Mignon Clyburn: (202) 418-2100
Twitter: @MClyburnFCC
www.fcc.gov
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).