FCC strikes in Net neutrality war: Run Internet like a utility [telecom]

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By Marguerite Reardon and Roger Cheng, CNET, February 4, 2015

The new rules would prohibit speeding up, slowing down or blocking broadband Internet traffic, under a rule that dates back to the early days of the telephone business.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler is ready to shake up the Internet.

Tom Wheeler, chairman of the FCC, wants to reclassify broadband as a utility in order to protect the open Internet. CNET/Marguerite Reardon

Wheeler confirmed on Wednesday that he intends to bring wired and wireless broadband services under utility-style rules based on Title II of the Communications Act of 1934. He said Title II would bring to end the debate over how to ensure that the Internet remains open to everyone, a concept known as Net neutrality.

Title II has the potential to radically change how the Internet is governed, giving the FCC unprecedented authority. The provision originally gave the FCC the power to set rates and enforce the "common carrier" principle, or the idea that every customer is treated fairly, on telephone service. Wheeler hopes to apply that principle to Internet traffic, preventing broadband providers from favoring one bit of data over another.

"I am submitting to my colleagues the strongest open Internet protections ever proposed by the FCC," he said in an op-ed published Wednesday on Wired.com.

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Neal McLain