Former FCC Boss Wheeler on his succesor: Things 'Going the Way I Feared'

Former FCC boss Tom Wheeler says the new agency's shift in the wake of his departure is going just the "way he feared." Since Wheeler departed new FCC boss Ajit Pai has wasted no time attacking net neutrality, killing consumer privacy laws, and crushing agency efforts to bring some much-needed competition to the cable box. Pai's even taken time to help prison phone monopolies rip off inmate families. In short, Pai is a rubber stamp for the industry's biggest companies, but breathlessly insists he's dedicated to consumers and the "digital divide."

In an interview with CNN Wheeler makes it abundantly clear he's not particularly impressed with the direction the agency is headed under Pai.

"It's going the way I feared," says the former FCC boss.

Of course Wheeler himself was loathed by the telecom industry after he imposed new consumer privacy protections, passed net neutrality, raised the standard definition of broadband to 25 Mbps, took aim at municipal broadband state-level restrictions, reclassified ISPs as common carriers, and worked to highlight the lack of competition in the sector (something out of character for FCC bosses from either party).

In the interview, Wheeler acknowledges he has struggled as he's watched Pai begin to dismantle the consumer-centric policies he adopted during his tenure.

https://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Former-FCC-Boss-Wheeler-Things-Going-the-Way-I-Feared-139044