Former FCC chief Scott Jordan calls for new Communications Act

A legislative overhaul would fundamentally change the relationship between streaming platforms and internet service providers by codifying common carriage and open access. If broadband is reclassified, the Federal Communications Commission could gain the authority to resolve interconnection disputes that currently lead to slower service or higher costs for content providers like Netflix. This shift would move the industry away from a deregulated environment toward a public-interest model where network management and data privacy are strictly monitored. Watch for the upcoming FCC annual regulatory fees discussion on September 24th to see if industry leaders and government officials align on these proposed regulatory frameworks.

The push for comprehensive communications legislation has gained momentum beyond Scott Jordan's individual advocacy. In early 2025, the Federal Communications Commission under Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel moved to reclassify broadband as a Title II telecommunications service, a step that restored the agency's authority over internet service providers after years of deregulation and set the stage for broader legislative action. That reclassification, adopted in April 2024, gave the FCC tools to enforce net neutrality and oversee interconnection practices, but it remains vulnerable to reversal by future commissions, underscoring why proponents like Jordan argue that only a new statute can provide durable rules for broadband and streaming markets.

The business and political stakes around communications reform have intensified as streaming platforms and broadband providers increasingly compete for the same subscribers. In July 2026, Meta Platforms and BlackRock announced plans to build a 1-gigawatt data center complex in Texas at a cost of roughly $14 billion, part of a broader wave of infrastructure investment by Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft to power AI and streaming workloads. That scale of capital deployment raises questions about who bears the cost of network upgrades and whether current regulatory frameworks adequately address the relationship between content delivery and last-mile access, precisely the gap Jordan's proposed Communications Act aims to close.

On the technical side, the debate over open access and common carriage has direct implications for how streaming traffic is managed across networks. Deepgram's recent integration with Amazon SageMaker, which runs real-time voice AI endpoints inside customer VPCs using AWS IAM temporary delegation, illustrates the growing complexity of data residency and access control in cloud-delivered media services. As streaming and AI workloads converge on shared infrastructure, the absence of clear statutory rules governing non-discriminatory access and interconnection creates uncertainty for both content providers and the platforms that deliver their services to end users.