WASHINGTON – Following a flood of responses to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission’s requests for comment about proposed regulations governing the conduct of broadband internet service providers, the chairman of the commission reportedly has revised the proposal to incorporate some net neutrality concepts after all.
Chief among them, according to an unnamed FCC official, is a section prohibiting the segregation of web traffic into fast and slow lanes depending upon websites’ willingness to pay for priority treatment.
The position represents a slight shift from language in the previous draft regulations that would have prevented ISPs from blocking websites or throttling their bandwidth while at the same time allowing providers to strike deals with large online operations to ensure priority delivery of their content to end-users. Although the gist of that idea remains, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler added new language indicating the FCC will scrutinize all such deals in order to ensure smaller players are not unfairly penalized.
Wheeler reportedly also is seeking input about whether “paid prioritization” agreements should be banned outright, and if not, how the FCC can prevent big ISPs like Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon from offering deals to some online companies but not to others.
Wheeler and the commission also continue to debate the suggested reclassification of ISPs as public utilities instead of information providers, which they are classified as now. The ISPs vehemently object to the reclassification because it would subject them to additional regulation and oversight, which they claim would cause investment and innovation to grind to a halt. Consumer groups, large online players like Google and Netflix, and rank-and-file consumers support reclassification, judging by the response to the FCC’s recent call for public comments.
The commission is expected to vote on the proposal Thursday.
