Net Neutrality: Debates continue after FCC decision

On Feb 26, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted on a proposal that decided whether or not to allow Internet providers to charge different rates based on accessibility, speed and broadband width.

After much debate on whether the Internet should be categorized as a public utility, such as electricity or telephones, or as a consumer good, like cars or household appliances, The FCC board voted 3-2 in favor of regulating the Internet as a public utility versus a service.

“You call it a close vote, I call it we had 50 percent more votes than they did,” said FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler in a press release statement issued after the vote. “This is no more a plan to regulate the Internet than the First Amendment is a plan to regulate free speech. The basic question comes down to this, if the Internet is the most powerful and pervasive platform in the history of the planet, can it exist without a referee?”

Network Neutrality requires all Internet service providers (ISP’s) to provide the same level of data access and speed to all traffic, and that traffic to one service or website cannot be blocked or downgraded. ISPs are also not to create special arrangements with services or websites in which companies providing them are given improved network access or speed.

The term “Net Neutrality” was coined in 2003 by a professor/lawyer at Columbia Law School, Tim Wu.

Net neutrality, the concept that all data on the Internet should be treated equally by corporations, such as Internet Service Providers and governments regardless of content, user, platform, application or device, has been debated since the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was passed. Historically, providers have opposed it and users have supported it.

“We cannot have a two-tiered Internet with fast lanes that speed the traffic of the privileged and leave the rest of us lagging behind,” said FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel in a press release statement explaining why she voted in support of net neutrality. “We cannot have gatekeepers who tell us what we can and cannot do.”

President Obama supports net neutrality declaring an open Internet essential to the American economy and increasingly to its very way of life.

“By lowering the cost of launching a new idea, igniting new political movements, and bringing communities closer together, it has been one of the most significant democratizing influences the world has ever known,” Obama said in a press release.

Although the net neutrality order hasn’t been fully published yet, FCC Commissioner Michael O’ Rielly, who voted against the proposal, is accusing Wheeler of revising his original plan because of pressure from Obama.

“First, I am just sick about what Chairman Wheeler was forced to go through during this process,” O’ Rielly said in a press release. “I guess that an artificial deadline to meet the radical protestors’ demands means that it is more likely that this item gets overturned by the courts because the work and thoughtful analysis needed to actually defend this completely flawed agenda is not included in the text.”

Cable and telephone companies, which provide 94 percent of broadband service, opposed the FCC decision and would like to eliminate net neutrality. Tech companies, such as Intel and IBM, argue that investments in Internet technology will decrease dramatically and that classifying the Internet as a utility could lead the U.S. into a recession.

Other tech companies, such as Netflix, Google, and Facebook, believe the opposite is true; they argue that Internet fast lanes would stifle innovation and hurt investments in new companies.

“The best way for people who have ideas, is to see them through,” said professor Diana Bowen, lecturer in communication. “If someone like Mark Zuckerberg had to pay the fast lane rates for Facebook, maybe he would have done something else.”

Even though the FCC voted to support net neutrality, the debate is not over. It can take up to six months with the Federal Register to respond to the changes made by the FCC.

In the meantime, ISPs such as Time Warner, Verizon and Comcast, are already challenging the FCC’s decision.

Timeline created by The Signal reporter Ericka Freeman.