Comments submitted to the FCC regarding its notice of proposed rule-making on the net neutrality issue totaled 1,101,729 as of yesterday afternoon. An impressive number, but also a nearly unchanged figure.
On July 18, the final day of the first period of comment on the proposed net neutrality rules, TechCrunch reported that the FCC had received 1,062,000 comments. After a big week that saw hundreds of thousands of submissions, that figure grew increasingly slowly as the week ended.
The two numbers imply that the FCC has received just under 40,000 comments in the following 12 days, implying a daily average rate of around 3,300. That’s dramatically slower than the pace seen previously.
There was a deluge of comments during the final days of the first comment period. So great, in fact, that the FCC’s website struggled to keep up with the traffic, leading the agency to extend its first deadline.
Net neutrality hasn’t stopped mattering as an issue. Netflix is still signing peering agreements, and there hasn’t been much indication yet that the FCC is considering dropping its paid prioritization plans.
Notably, however, Senator Harry Reid recently indicated in a letter that he supports net neutrality, and that he will “lead the fight to protect any Open Internet rules promulgated by the FCC” against political attack. That’s encouraging.
I suspect that we’ll see an upward tick in submitted comments as the final comment period comes to an end, but for now, it’s quiet season on the issue.
