FCC Chair Tom Wheeler to Step Down January 20 ⇥ politico.com

Margaret Harding Mcgill and Alex Byers, Politico:

Democratic FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said Thursday he will leave the agency Jan. 20, ending months of will-he or won’t-he speculation about his plans.

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With Wheeler departing next month, chief among the GOP targets are Wheeler’s net neutrality rules, passed last year, which require internet service providers to treat all web traffic equally. The rules reclassify broadband akin to a utility making it subject to stricter oversight. Republicans called the regulations burdensome on companies, and the telecom industry has sued — so far unsuccessfully — to overturn them.

The partisan response to an issue as essential as net neutrality is baffling to me. It will have dire long-term consequences, with telecom companies exerting far greater influence over what passes through their infrastructure, and consumers receiving the brunt of the effect in terms of cost and experience.