FCC Chairman "Will Fight" to Restore Net Neutrality

[StewShearerOld]

FCC Chairman "Will Fight" to Restore Net Neutrality

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler says the FCC will "readdress" its options to re-establish net neutrality.

A few days ago we had the sad duty of reporting that a ruling made by the U.S. Appeals Court had effectively killed net neutrality as we currently know it. Under the ruling, broadband providers like Comcast, Verizon and Time Warner Cable, were made exempt from current FCC rules governing how they're allowed to sell their internet services. While Verizon and Comcast, among others, <a href=http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/14/5309268/comcast-verizon-and-others-promise-net-neutrality-ruling-wont-hurt>have expressed that they'll be maintaining their current practices based on the net neutrality rules, many skeptics are readying themselves for the worst.

That said, if FCC chairman Tom Wheeler has his way, the worst may never come. Rather than admitting defeat Wheeler has expressed his intention to find a new way to bring broadband providers back under the FCC's umbrella. "Using our authority, we will readdress the concepts in the Open Internet Order, as the court invited, to encourage growth and innovation and enforce against abuse," he said. While Wheeler didn't offer any specifics as to what the FCC plans to do, there may be options open to the agency.

Primarily, if it could reclassify broadband as a common carrier service, it could again place direct restrictions on providers. Otherwise, the FCC might be limited appealing the ruling, taking consumer advocacy measures or obtaining things like voluntary agreements from broadband companies not infringe on neutrality standards. If providers failed to agree to such agreements they would have a relatively free reign to favor certain websites, slow and block traffic to others and even charge users special fees to access popular sites. That in mind, it's clear to Wheeler that something has to be done. "The great revolution in the Internet is how it empowers individuals to both consume and create," he said. "To do so requires an accessible and open Internet, and we will fight to preserve that capability."

Source: ArsTechnica


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[Weaver]

Never really thought I'd be cheering for the FCC, but... I hope they win!

 

[The World Famous]

Tom Wheeler for hero of the internet.

 

[Slash2x]

Translation " If we lose the court case... We will just do what all the other gov agencies do and rename it then rinse and repeat with the laws" For once I can type that and it is a good thing

 

[Leonardo Huizar]

This and that "FOX news video that points out net neutrality is a good thing" http://video.foxnews.com/v/3059170908001/the-end-of-internet-as-we-know-it/#sp=show-clips is proof that even the rite-wing dont want the convenience & luxury of a free internet to go away

 

[RJ Dalton]

Never really thought I'd be cheering for the FCC, but... I hope they win!

The thing is, this whole problem is the FCC's own fault. The previous director reclassified the internet as "information services" instead of telecommunications, which means that the FCC no longer has much authority to regulate it. Oh, and the previous director then retired and became a lobbyist for the cable companies. Tell me that's a coincidence, I dare you.
Unless the FCC puts the internet back in its original classification, the loss of net neutrality is inevitable.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

I certainly hope so. Time Warner already charges me 36 bucks a month for paltry 3 mg download speeds. They're certainly not above screwing me.

3MB/s or 3Mbit?

Because I use 2Mb/s(20Mbit) internet for £21 per month(exactly $36) and Virgin Media are supposed to be the best ISP in Britain, and I don't want to think that I am getting screwed over by them.

Because that wouldn't be nice.

OT: I don't know if the FCC has a good track record, but in this case, if they are fighting to not have companies dick over people in the US, then they are most certainly doing the right thing.

[small]What is it with companies screwing over consumers these past years? >.<[/small]

 

[Weaver]

Never really thought I'd be cheering for the FCC, but... I hope they win!

The thing is, this whole problem is the FCC's own fault. The previous director reclassified the internet as "information services" instead of telecommunications, which means that the FCC no longer has much authority to regulate it. Oh, and the previous director then retired and became a lobbyist for the cable companies. Tell me that's a coincidence, I dare you.
Unless the FCC puts the internet back in its original classification, the loss of net neutrality is inevitable.

Sorry, I didn't know all that. I don't follow American politics very much.

 

[Callate]

I'd love to hear more specifically what they plan on doing to address the matter. But at least they're awake, and working on it; that's something.

 

[faefrost]

Are you people insane? The reason the FCC lost is they self appropriated regulatory powers specifically not given to them by Congress. Yes the goal of Net Neutrality is good and noble. But for Fk sake do it the right way. Get Congress to authorize it and pass a law. Otherwise this peoples hero Mr. Wheeler is simply a tyrant enforcing his will against the rule of actual law. Which in the end is a far far worse outcome than Comcast charging you extra for Netflix.

The FCC does not get to decide who or what the FCC regulates. Congress and through Congress the people do. This is kind of an important point towards that whole freedom thing you all gone on about. If you want Net Neutrality, write your Congressman. The FCC is not your friend.

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

Considering the US has Silicon Valley and is kinda the birthplace of the internet it would be nice if the government doesn't let Big Internet turn what was working fine into a hellhole of greed. As far as I know the electric grid here in my part of the States is shared by several companies. If one has to buy power from another for any amount of time, they don't jack up the rates on us residential customer to fill in their small loss of profits. Maybe instead of letting ISPs prioritize traffic based on who is filling up their pockets faster they should be more regulated like power companies. Comcast, Time Warner and Verizon all have practical monopolies on high speed residential internet where they operate. This should have happened back when I first heard the rumors of this a decade ago.

The fact that they get away with price gouging and are about to financially blackmail sites like Netflix, Youtube, Hulu, etc.(Their prime competitors since they want you paying for crap cable, too), whilst many out side of the US say they get great rates on faster internet with almost no mostly caps is a testament to the economic destruction these firms could cause if the FCC loses this battle. It's SOPA without the excuse of fighting copyright theft. Mr. Wheeler, if you need an army to fight this war, the average American will take up their digital arms and fight for you, as soon as they see they're about to be f'ed in their next bills.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Are you people insane? The reason the FCC lost is they self appropriated regulatory powers specifically not given to them by Congress. Yes the goal of Net Neutrality is good and noble. But for Fk sake do it the right way. Get Congress to authorize it and pass a law. Otherwise this peoples hero Mr. Wheeler is simply a tyrant enforcing his will against the rule of actual law. Which in the end is a far far worse outcome than Comcast charging you extra for Netflix.

The FCC does not get to decide who or what the FCC regulates. Congress and through Congress the people do. This is kind of an important point towards that whole freedom thing you all gone on about. If you want Net Neutrality, write your Congressman. The FCC is not your friend.

^^This. Once again the government, specifically the bastards at the FCC, having unrestrained control is a bad BAD thing. Congress is where this should be taken up. You can't circumvent the system because you didn't like the outcome. There are proper channels. Just like the recent abuse of Executive Orders, its not a good thing when those who are supposed to pass laws are backdoored by people who don't get their way.
I agree that things need to change but giving the FCC this much control and regulation is absurd and insane.

 

[VanTesla]

Are you people insane? The reason the FCC lost is they self appropriated regulatory powers specifically not given to them by Congress. Yes the goal of Net Neutrality is good and noble. But for Fk sake do it the right way. Get Congress to authorize it and pass a law. Otherwise this peoples hero Mr. Wheeler is simply a tyrant enforcing his will against the rule of actual law. Which in the end is a far far worse outcome than Comcast charging you extra for Netflix.

The FCC does not get to decide who or what the FCC regulates. Congress and through Congress the people do. This is kind of an important point towards that whole freedom thing you all gone on about. If you want Net Neutrality, write your Congressman. The FCC is not your friend.

Get rid of Congress as it is for they can't do shit right or when they try to it just takes a few to screw something good up because of corruption and backroom deals... Congress is the worse body to do anything right or get things done n any timely manner... Look at how Veterans Affairs are handled and the only way to actually fix the big issues in that is sadly through Congress and nothing is done because of Congress. How about Congress denying medical and financial aid to first responders of 9/11 because on the pretense that a few of those responders or victims may not have got cancer or a part of their body screwed up because of that exact incident thus denying the majority for more than a dam decade! My apologies for sounding so aggresive, but Congress as for the past few decades is more than a hindrance to getting things fixed fast and is a cesspool of corruption. Honestly it is good that neither is fully in control though for both are so corrupt and wacked that it could likely be worse, but as time goes on I wonder how much could it be...

It is true though that the former heads of the FCC undermined the current so thet they could quit and join the lobbyist of the corporations that paid them to do so, but that just shows the need to have more accountability and to have those people commiting such acts held responsible and found guilty of manipulating the system to undermine the peoples rights and not defend corporates rights over the people. The moment we finally see some of these aholes on both sides get some actual punishment I would think we would get some progress going in the right direction.

 

[spartan231490]

Deflection alert! This is a deflection. He's not going to do anything about it at all. I almost guarantee it. The FCC is almost as corrupt as the FDA, so there's no way they're going to do anything that would interfere with the bottom line of big business.

 

[VanTesla]

Are you people insane? The reason the FCC lost is they self appropriated regulatory powers specifically not given to them by Congress. Yes the goal of Net Neutrality is good and noble. But for Fk sake do it the right way. Get Congress to authorize it and pass a law. Otherwise this peoples hero Mr. Wheeler is simply a tyrant enforcing his will against the rule of actual law. Which in the end is a far far worse outcome than Comcast charging you extra for Netflix.

The FCC does not get to decide who or what the FCC regulates. Congress and through Congress the people do. This is kind of an important point towards that whole freedom thing you all gone on about. If you want Net Neutrality, write your Congressman. The FCC is not your friend.

^^This. Once again the government, specifically the bastards at the FCC, having unrestrained control is a bad BAD thing. Congress is where this should be taken up. You can't circumvent the system because you didn't like the outcome. There are proper channels. Just like the recent abuse of Executive Orders, its not a good thing when those who are supposed to pass laws are backdoored by people who don't get their way.
I agree that things need to change but giving the FCC this much control and regulation is absurd and insane.

If everything was only able to go through with Congress approval as the go to, then this nation would be completely screwed... There needs to be checks and balances for sure and in more places then others and vice a versa, but when you have the checks and balances being corrupted then it is time to clean house. As long as the jerks in Congress get away with shit that any normal citizen would be jailed or fired on the spot for, but is legal in their posistion because they can make the laws thus what is the point for them to even be since they are not fulfilling the duty that was handed to them by the people... My apologies if I am making no sense I am a bit or should say a tad drunk so yeah that is my excuse for my jumble rant and thus I am sorry for any incoherence I may bring. Not trying to say down with Congress completely just the one we have and how it is operated as of now and that to rely on them to get things done accordingly or for the betterment of our Country in any timely manner is just beyond ignorant and boardering on insanity in my opinion. Also the issue of corruption is a bipartisan issue that in a perfect or I should say logical world both left and right wing citizens should be uniting together on but instead attack each other on petty BS...

 

[Baldr]

I certainly hope so. Time Warner already charges me 36 bucks a month for paltry 3 mg download speeds. They're certainly not above screwing me.

3MB/s or 3Mbit?

Because I use 2Mb/s(20Mbit) internet for £21 per month(exactly $36) and Virgin Media are supposed to be the best ISP in Britain, and I don't want to think that I am getting screwed over by them.

Because that wouldn't be nice.

OT: I don't know if the FCC has a good track record, but in this case, if they are fighting to not have companies dick over people in the US, then they are most certainly doing the right thing.

[small]What is it with companies screwing over consumers these past years? >.<[/small]

It is 3Mbps, that is the Time Warner Cable basic package. I have the Ultimate package, it only cost me $38/month because I have a 50% discount.

Right now Time Warner Cable policy is Net Neutrality, however in a few months, TWC is probably going to be owned by another cable company.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

I certainly hope so. Time Warner already charges me 36 bucks a month for paltry 3 mg download speeds. They're certainly not above screwing me.

3MB/s or 3Mbit?

Because I use 2Mb/s(20Mbit) internet for £21 per month(exactly $36) and Virgin Media are supposed to be the best ISP in Britain, and I don't want to think that I am getting screwed over by them.

Because that wouldn't be nice.

OT: I don't know if the FCC has a good track record, but in this case, if they are fighting to not have companies dick over people in the US, then they are most certainly doing the right thing.

[small]What is it with companies screwing over consumers these past years? >.<[/small]

It is 3Mbps, that is the Time Warner Cable basic package. I have the Ultimate package, it only cost me $38/month because I have a 50% discount.

Right now Time Warner Cable stands Net Neutrality, however in a few months, TWC is probably going to be owned by another cable company.

YAY!

So I am getting shafted!

Goddamit UK and your internet speeds:

 

[VanTesla]

I feel dirty cheering for the FCC, but those idiots better get their heads out of their asses and fix this problem pronto or the Internet goes down the shitter.

Sad thing is the former heads in the FCC are the reason this shit is even happening in the first place and so the peope in the FCC that actually want to do the right thing have to fix the problems put in place by the past leaders since those aholes got paid to manipulate the system and get nice checks after they retired/quit to join the lobbiest of the cable companies... No one was punished or jailed for such acts is what makes it so sad and disgusting.