Will decide the notion of ‘fast lanes’.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: Tom Wheeler, Chairman of the Federal Communications Division has announced that the FCC will vote on proposed net neutrality rules next month. He divulged that the vote will take place on February 26, speaking at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Wheeler elaborated that the proposal will be circulated to agency commissioners on February 5, indicating they will have a three week window to vote.
Net neutrality describes the notion that Internet service providers such as Comcast, Verizon, and Time Warner, should treat all Internet data equally and not discriminate or charge differently based on user, content, site, platform, or application.
Last November, President Barack Obama publicly offered his support of net neutrality, and asked the FCC to reclassify Internet service as a utility. If the Internet is not designated a utility, service providers will be able to throttle content from some companies while favoring others who are able to pay additional fees for “fast lanes.”
“Right now, there are no paid fast lanes on the Internet. That’s a good thing. A large part of the debate about net neutrality is focused on ensuring it stays that way,” a Netflix vice president wrote on their blog earlier this week. “If ISPs are allowed to sell fast lanes, competition for various Internet sites and services will become less about the value of what’s offered and more about who can pay the most to deliver it faster. It would be the very opposite environment than the one the Internet created.”
Wheeler did not provide any concrete details regarding the proposal itself, but did hint that it will seek to reclassify broadband as a Title II utility. However, he also suggested the agency may take a “hybrid approach,” applying Title II status to only broadband internet.
“When the president came out … there was an effort made to say Wheeler and the president are pulling in opposite directions on this,” he stated. “But that wasn’t exactly the reality because we’re both pulling in the same directions, which is no blocking, no throttling of applications, and transparency about how we get there.”