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Protesters rally at the FCC in 2014 in favor of net neutrality rules. (credit: Stephen Melkisethian)

When the Federal Communications Commission voted to regulate Internet providers as common carriers under Title II of the Communications Act last year, Chairman Tom Wheeler made it clear that the FCC could have imposed even stricter requirements.

The commission primarily used Title II to impose net neutrality rules that prevent Internet providers from blocking or throttling traffic or giving priority to Web services in exchange for payment. But the FCC could have also imposed rate regulation and required last-mile "unbundling," which would force Internet providers to let competitors offer service over their networks.

Wheeler rejected that type of heavy-handed utility regulation, instead announcing that there would be "no rate regulation, no filing of tariffs, and no network unbundling." By promising only "light-touch" common carrier rules, Wheeler tried to convince Internet providers that the new regulatory regime wouldn't be that bad. Of course, the FCC was sued by broadband providers anyway. “Everybody sues us about everything,” Wheeler once said after a different decision on prison phone rates.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler in his Washington, DC, office. (credit: Jon Brodkin)

When President Obama nominated Tom Wheeler to lead the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in May 2013, there was widespread concern the new chairman would push the interests of telecommunications companies instead of standing up for the American people.

After all, Wheeler had been the top lobbyist for both the cable and cell phone industries, having worked for the National Cable Television Association (NCTA) from 1976 to 1984 and the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association (CTIA) from 1992 to 2004. Though he had left those jobs years before, people wondered if a former lobbyist would properly regulate the industries he once represented.

“Obama’s Bad Pick: A Former Lobbyist at the FCC,” said the headline in The New Yorker on the day after Wheeler's nomination. Consumer advocacy groups such as Free Press and the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute publicly doubted whether Wheeler would be tough on his previous employers.