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| Tom Wheeler |
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said by placing broadband Internet providers such as Comcast and Verizon Wireless under a stricter regulatory regime, consumers would be ensured an open Internet. Under the new regime, broadband providers would be explicitly banned from blocking content or creating fast lanes for Web services that can pay for preferential treatment into American homes.
The proposal is the latest in a year-long struggle by Wheeler, a former lobbyist for the cable and wireless industry, to create so-called net neutrality rules, amid great public interest in the creation of strong rules and fierce opposition by deep-pocketed telecom and cable companies.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said by placing broadband Internet providers such as Comcast and Verizon Wireless under a stricter regulatory regime, consumers would be ensured an open Internet. Under the new regime, broadband providers would be explicitly banned from blocking content or creating fast lanes for Web services that can pay for preferential treatment into American homes.
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Broadband internet service is now classified as an "information" service under the FCC's rules, which allows it to escape some types of regs that are applied to telecommunications services such as wired phone lines. A federal appeals court tossed out previous net neutrality rules last year and web activists have been calling for action. Nearly 4 million comments came in.
In Congress, Republicans have raced to write new legislation that would enshrine in law some net neutrality protections - such as a ban on blocking, slowing or speeding up people's access to particular websites - but would ban the FCC from treating the web like a utility, among other new restrictions. Nothing will happen until after the FCC votes on 26 Feb
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