Ajit Pai joins American Enterprise Institute and a firm that invests in ISPs (original) (raw)

After four years of running the Federal Communications Commission, Ajit Pai is now working for a conservative think tank and a private-equity firm.

The American Enterprise Institute on Friday announced that the ex-FCC chairman "is joining AEI as a visiting fellow" and "will work on issues pertaining to technology and innovation, telecommunications regulation, and market-based incentives for investment in broadband deployment."

Earlier last week, Searchlight Capital Partners announced the appointment of Pai "as a partner and a prospective board member of a number of Searchlight's existing investments in the technology, media, and telecommunications sectors." Searchlight's current investments include two Internet service providers in the US, Consolidated Communications and Ziply Fiber, and several ISPs overseas.

AEI fellows produce reports and testify in Congressional hearings, so Pai can use his new position to push for further deregulation of the telecom industry. Pai was the FCC chair during the Trump administration, from January 2017 to January 2021, and spent those four years stripping away consumer protections and regulations that Internet service providers and other network operators previously had to follow.

As FCC chair, Pai justified his deregulatory agenda by using faulty data and taking credit for broadband deployments that were planned before he became chairman. Pai claimed that the Title II common-carrier regulations he repealed had prevented broadband-network investment, even though ISPs themselves told investors that wasn't true. He never raised the FCC's broadband-speed standard and claimed on his way out of the FCC that Americans still only need download speeds of 25Mbps and upload speeds of 3Mbps.

The AEI's statement that Pai will work on "market-based incentives for investment in broadband deployment" suggests that he will probably continue making the same types of arguments that deregulation expands broadband access. Pai was also a Verizon lawyer between 2001 and 2003.

AEI calls Pai “a creative thought leader”

"AEI is widely recognized as a place where serious policy analysis and discussions on important policy matters happen, and I look forward to being part of these discussions," Pai said in the AEI's announcement of his new position.

"As chairman of the FCC, Ajit Pai developed a well-deserved reputation as a creative thought leader on issues as wide-ranging as broadband policies for closing the digital divide to enabling investment in next-generation networks (5G)," said Ryan Streeter, the AEI's director of domestic policy studies. "His expertise in these and related topics is a great addition to AEI's ongoing work on technology policy."