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POLITICO Pro
FCC approves
net neutrality rules
By Alex Byers and Brooks Boliek
2/26/15 1:05 PM EST
Updated
2/26/15 2:21 PM EST
The Federal Communications
Commission voted along party lines Thursday to approve sweeping changes to how
it regulates the Internet, capping more than a year of noisy debate that
sparked millions of public comments and drew the attention of President Barack
Obama and congressional leaders.
The agency’s three Democrats voted
to approve Chairman Tom Wheeler’s net neutrality order, which would treat
broadband like a utility to ensure all Web traffic is treated equally. The
commission’s two GOP members, Republican lawmakers and the nation’s telecom
giants oppose the rules, saying they will dampen innovation and investment.
AT&T has already threatened a legal challenge.
“The Internet is the most powerful
and pervasive platform on the planet. It’s simply too important to be left
without rules and without a referee on the field,” Wheeler said at Thursday’s
FCC’s meeting. “Today is a red-letter day for Internet freedom, for consumers
who want to use the Internet on their terms, for innovators who want to reach
consumers without the control of gatekeepers.”
In a separate decision Thursday, the
FCC’s Democratic majority voted to override state laws that prevent
community-run broadband networks in Chattanooga, Tennessee and Wilson, North
Carolina from expanding their geographic reach. The move will help such locally
managed networks compete with incumbent cable and telecom companies.
Net neutrality, however, has been
the most contentious policy issue.
Wheeler’s plan will prevent ISPs
from blocking or degrading legal Internet traffic and bar them from cutting
deals to charge companies for so-called Internet fast lanes. It applies net
neutrality protections to both land-based and wireless Internet as well as to
“interconnection” points between networks deep inside the Web.
The FCC chairman didn’t initially
intend to write net neutrality rules, but a decision by the D.C. Circuit of
Appeals in January 2014 tossing key elements of the agency’s previous Open
Internet order threw the issue in his lap.
His initial replacement proposal —
which would have allowed pay-for-play Internet fast lanes, as long as they were
deemed “commercially reasonable” — sparked an immediate backlash. Outraged
liberals launched a protest campaign and generated millions of comments to the
agency in support of tighter regulation. A segment by comedian and HBO host
John Oliver lampooning Wheeler’s plan added to the outrage.
After sustained pressure from
progressives — and a public push from President Barack Obama in November —
Wheeler gravitated toward a tougher approach that subjects ISPs to regulations
originally written for phone companies in the 1930s. It’s based on Title II of
the Communications Act.
That shift incensed Republicans, who
see the rules as drastic over-regulation and a federal government power grab.
Ajit Pai, the FCC’s senior GOP commissioner, has said the plan could ultimately
give the agency the authority to set rates for Internet service — a charge
Wheeler and FCC officials have denied.
“The commission’s decision to adopt
President Obama’s plan marks a monumental shift toward government control of
the Internet,” Pai said at the agency meeting Thursday. “It gives the FCC the
power to micromanage virtually every aspect of how the Internet works. It’s an
overreach that will let a Washington bureaucracy, and not the American people,
decide the future of the online world.?”
GOP lawmakers have been turning up
the heat on Wheeler on net neutrality. They’ve launched investigations into
what they see as inappropriate White House influence over the FCC’s decision
making and offered an alternative legislative proposal that would institute
weaker net neutrality rules and tie the FCC hands on future regulation of
broadband.
Republicans have also criticized
Wheeler on transparency grounds for not releasing his plan ahead of the FCC
vote. An FCC official said the agency’s standard practice is to not make
proposals public before a vote, adding they’re normally made available within
days or weeks depending on the complexity of the topic.
“Overzealous government bureaucrats
should keep their hands off the Internet,” House Speaker John Boehner said in a
statement. “More mandates and regulations on American innovation and
entrepreneurship are not the answer, and that’s why Republicans will continue
our efforts to stop this misguided scheme.”
The telecom industry is expected to
mount a legal challenge to the net neutrality order, and AT&T has indicated
the big carriers will likely ask a court to block the plan.
On Thursday, the company warned the
FCC’s vote may not last.
“Instead of a clear set of rules
moving forward, with a broad set of agreement behind them, we once again face
the uncertainty of litigation, and the very real potential of having to start
over — again — in the future,” said Jim Cicconi, AT&T’s top lobbyist.
“Partisan decisions taken on 3-2 votes can be undone on similarly partisan 3-2
votes only two years hence.”
The FCC’s decision to intervene on
behalf of community broadband may open a new phase in the broader debate over
competition in the Internet service market.
Some ISPs have lobbied for state
restrictions on municipal networks, and Obama has called on the FCC to come to
the aid of towns and cities that want to build out their own locally-run
Internet service. Republicans in Congress, meanwhile, have warned the FCC
against what they call unconstitutional meddling in state affairs.
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