The FCC Has Received More Than 1,000,000 Comments On Net Neutrality

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has received more than 1 million comments from the public regarding its proposed net neutrality rules. According to the FCC’s Gigi Sohn, 1,030,000 comments had been submitted by noon today on the East Coast.

Around 21 hours before her note on the new figure, Sohn indicated that the FCC had received more than 900,000 comments. So it appears that there is a late surge in input.

Earlier this week, under crushing traffic, the FCC pushed its deadline back for the first round of public comment to Friday, to allow everyone a chance to submit their views. Companies like Comcast and Netflix have weighed in during the extended period, as well as, it appears, a huge number of private individuals.

The issue of net neutrality, and especially the FCC’s current notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM), has caught on in the public domain in impressive fashion. It will be interesting to see what the final tally will come to. It doesn’t appear that the comments for net neutrality will best, in their abundance, the 1.4 million that the FCC racked up following the Janet Jackson-Super Bowl imbroglio. (For a NPRM, however, this is a record, Sohn notes.)

The next question is whether FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler will be swayed by the copious correspondence. As we kick into the second half of the debate of the NPRM, the market will have its eyes trained on his comments for any indication that his views on the idea of paid prioritization have changed.

IMAGE BY FLICKR USER SEAN MACENTEE UNDER CC BY 2.0 LICENSE (IMAGE HAS BEEN MODIFIED)