Because it is important
By voting to move forward with a proposal to restore net neutrality, the FCC is expanding its reach.
Ultimately, the move will allow the agency to classify high-speed Internet as a public utility, like water or electricity. This is an important step toward modernizing the agency’s goals, especially as consumers increasingly rely on the Internet as their primary source of communication. The agency will then be able to monitor broadband providers for net neutrality violations, harm to consumers and security failures.
“Now is the time for our rules for Internet service providers to reflect the reality that Internet access is a necessity for everyday life,” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement.
Background: What is net neutrality?
Net neutrality is an unreliable principle of equal access to the Internet.
The idea is that broadband customers can access anywhere without interference from high-speed Internet service providers. The concept, coined more than 15 years ago by Tim Wu, a professor at Columbia Law School, was initially developed to prevent cable and telecommunications companies that provide Internet services from blocking or slowing the delivery of sites like Google, Netflix and Skype, which compete with them. with them.
The debate over net neutrality has been highly partisan. The FCC established net neutrality regulations during the Obama administration, but Republicans criticized them as an overreach. Telcos have also argued that net neutrality rules could lead to regulatory tightening and regulation of broadband rates. The FCC, led by Republicans under President Donald J. Trump, repealed the rules in 2017.
Rosenworcel, a Democrat, said she decided to revive the debate after seeing the importance of broadband oversight in the coronavirus pandemic. Broadband became a necessity for education and work during the shutdowns, but the agency couldn’t force providers to guarantee quality service, she said.
What critics say
Republican lawmakers are fighting the measure to restore net neutrality rules. In a letter to Rosenworcel this week, Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee criticized the proposal as a “solution in search of a problem.”
USTelecom, the trade group that represents companies like AT&T and Verizon, wrote letters this week to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees warning of the FCC’s “mission creep” on cybersecurity. The letters said the FCC was potentially sowing confusion among government agencies and congressional committees over national security issues related to broadband.
Brendan Carr, a Republican commissioner of the FCC, said broadband services had improved without regulation. He criticized the proposal as counterproductive to consumers.
“There will be a lot of talk about ‘net neutrality’ and virtually nothing about the central issue before the agency: namely, whether the FCC should claim for itself the free power to micromanage almost every aspect of how the Internet works. from the services that consumers can access to the prices that can be charged,” Carr said.
Whats Next
The FCC will begin taking public comments on the proposed rule. The president may then choose to incorporate comments into a final draft. The commission will then vote on promulgating the regulation in early 2024 at the earliest.
