House Republican leaders now call of the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) to cancel proposed Internet rules and warn that by allowing Internet service providers to control the content on their networks, they are threatening to disrupt the Internet as well.
FCC chairman Tom Wheeler is under fire from technology companies and consumer advocates for proposing content companies to be allowed to pay service providers to prioritize Internet traffic on their networks. Under the proposal, service providers would be allowed to sign deals with companies such as Amazon and Netflix to have their services delivered faster to consumers than companies that do not have such deals.
After Wheeler was said to have revised the proposal for net neutrality, 28 service providers from the U.S. wrote the FCC a letter to dissuade the agency from reclassifying broadband as a utility. Among the companies which supported the letter were Comcast, AT&T, Verizon and Time Warner Cable. The letter states that while reclassifying it as a utility that would give the agency more power to regulate service providers, it would also suppress innovation and eventually result to fewer funds invested in broadband networks. It would ultimately hurt the consumers' online experience. Some lawmakers also wrote to Wheeler.
"At a time when technology businesses need certainty to innovate, this is not the time for the FCC to engage in a counterproductive effort to even further regulate the Internet," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio; Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va.; Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and Conference Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., wrote on May 17 to urge the FCC to reassess its rules.
"Sanctioning paid prioritization would allow discrimination and irrevocably change the Internet as we know it," Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. With some of his Democratic colleagues urged Wheeler to drop the proposal. "Small businesses, content creators and Internet users must not be held hostage by an increasingly consolidated broadband industry."
Over 100 technology companies including Facebook Inc. and Google Inc. spoke against the pay-for-priority rule but they did not call for reclassification. A public-Interest group called Free Press said that the arguments of the Internet providers against reclassification were "lazy" and "baseless." Reclassifying broadband would give FCC the power to impose net neutrality which means that Internet content should all be equally accessible.
Whatever happens today, FCC will most likely be hearing from advocates of Internet openness. If Wheeler will not present everything in black and white, then forces from both sides will try to take advantage of loopholes. Today's vote and new net neutrality rules is a good opportunity for FCC to practice it's true authority.
