Economic Evaluation of the Factual Basis for the FCC's Open Internet Order

The Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) highly anticipated Open Internet Order, released on March 12, 2015,1 was upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on June 14, 2016.2 The Order for the first time imposed common carrier regulation on providers of fixed and mobile services that provide mass-market Internet access to households and businesses. Previously, consistent with the Telecommunications Act of 19963 and earlier FCC orders,4 Internet access providers had been subject to moderate regulation. Among the new regulatory restrictions is an outright ban on paid prioritization, which prevents providers from offering and content providers from paying for higher-quality Internet transmission. And although not definitively prohibiting a similar arrangement in which content