There’s a lot of net neutrality buzz making its rounds, and that’s because FCC chairman Tom Wheeler (News - Alert) expressed his support for Title II reclassification in the ongoing debate at CES last week. It was made known that the FCC will vote on the matter at the end of February.
The gist of Wheeler’s original plan is thus: major websites such as Amazon.com (News - Alert) could pay a premium fee to be in their own fast lane, meaning their information will be delivered quickly to customers. In terms of other online players with far less resources, they can expect slower load times. Think startups, artists and other small businesses.
The tides may be turning, but no one is for certain on that matter, yet Wheeler told the crowds at CES that his new rules will include “no blocking, no throttling, (no) paid prioritization.”
President Obama has favored support of reclassification of Internet access service under Title II common carrier regulations and now Wheeler appears ready to follow the President's lead.
The initiative was launched on January 14, which marks a year since the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit threw out the FCC's previous network neutrality rules for insufficient legal justification. Several legislators, so far Republicans only, are talking about passing a bill that would protect against blocking and discriminating and paid prioritization, but without reclassifying under Title II and without applying the regulations to wireless broadband.
Wireless and telecom giants Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile (News - Alert) have all strongly come out against reclassifying Internet services as utilities, with AT&T in particular standing firm that reclassifying carriers would kill off its ability to invest in network upgrades.
Sprint (News - Alert), on the other hand, says it’s okay with a Title II regulation.
“So long as the FCC continues to allow wireless carriers to manage our networks and differentiate our products,” Sprint concludes, “[we] will continue to invest in data networks regardless of whether they are regulated by Title II, Section 706, or some other light touch regulatory regime,” according to a letter from Sprint CTO Stephen Bye (News - Alert) to FCC Chairman Wheeler, spotted by tech news site, GigaOm.
In short, Wheeler gave the strongest indication that his new proposal would rely on reclassifying the Internet. While no specific details have been released, the chairman is expected to circulate the rule early next month and hold a vote on Feb. 26. Stay tuned for news as it happens.
Edited by Rory J. Thompson