FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel: Restore Net Neutrality and Expand Internet to All

Published on by Coindesk | Published on

One side represents the business class, or the dominant internet service providers that want less regulation, freer markets, and the ability to determine how to run and where to build their networks.

Its apotheosis is found in the current chairman, Ajit Pai.The competing side, represented by Jessica Rosenworcel, one of the five FCC commissioners, is fighting for the interests of consumers.

Its cornerstone positions are the restoration of net neutrality and the expansion of broadband access for all those who want it.

Republicans want to defang the FCC, while Democrats want to leverage it to expand and improve broadband in the county.

"It's only in Washington, where there are high paid lobbyists on behalf of broadband, that this is a controversial point," Gigi Sohn, a former FCC chair and current NGO operator at the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Open Markets Institute, said in a phone call.

He hasn't delivered, but it's a call to action also picked up by Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, who collectively have offered $235 billion to build broadband networks.

The agency passed a $20.4 billion subsidy to construct broadband networks in unserved parts of the U.S. over the next decade.

From the start, registered Democrat Jessica Rosenworcel, opposed the bill.

This sense of rational urgency is displayed in much of Rosenworcel's activity as a broadband advocate.

CoinDesk caught up with the commissioner to determine where she stands on 21 century communications technologies.

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