A year end blessing: No net neutrality

By Brian A. Rankin of CEI.

"As we approach the end of the year, it’s a natural time to reflect on what we’re grateful for. While many blessings come to mind, one worth highlighting is something we don’t have: net neutrality.

After all the years of arguments, FCC orders, and appeals, one might recoil from the mere mention of the topic. We may not look back on the net neutrality saga fondly, but it is worth recognizing what the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals’s reversal of the Biden FCC’s net neutrality order makes possible today.

Rather than heavy-handed utility-style net neutrality regulation, the United States has a light-touch broadband regulatory regime – one that emphasizes investment, innovation, and flexible network management. The results are measurable. According to the USTelecom 2025 Broadband Pricing Index, real broadband prices have continued to fall while speeds have continued to climb.

From 2024 to 2025, the price of providers’ most popular service tiers (100 Mbps to 940 Mbps) fell by 8.7 percent, and since 2015, inflation-adjusted prices for those plans have dropped 63.4 percent. Meanwhile, download speeds have doubled, and upload speeds have increased by more than 80 percent. Consumers are getting far more value for every broadband dollar they spend.

The evidence leads to a clear conclusion: light-touch regulation is working. Americans continue to access any lawful website or video service they choose, and they benefit from a wide range of broadband plans and providers. None of the dire predictions made during the net neutrality debates – slowed traffic, blocked websites, or ISP-driven censorship – came to pass.

We should appreciate a regulatory environment that recognizes the importance of continued network investment, innovation, and competition. The strong performance of US broadband under a light-touch framework is a reminder that sometimes what we avoid is as important as what we achieve."