FCC Chairman Burns Down Internet Community

[dsteve01]

http://time.com/96688/net-neutrality-plan-in-chaos/

For decades, the FCC has regulated traditional phone service under common carrier provisions that require phone companies to connect all calls to people around the country. But in 2002, the FCC made the fateful decision to classify broadband as an “information service” not a “telecommunications service” — paving the way for internet fast lanes and setting the stage for a decade of legal wrangling.

The FCC’s Internet governance policies have been in limbo since a federal court struck down most of the agency’s 2010 Open Internet order in January. That order prohibited broadband providers like Comcast and Verizon from blocking traffic like Skype or Netflix on wired networks or putting them into an Internet “slow lane.”

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/05/12/internet-fast-lane-revision/8994875/

Responding to waves of criticism, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler is revising his net neutrality rule proposals to include a ban on certain types of "fast lanes" for content companies that are willing to pay Internet service providers for the upgrade.

The revision, which seeks comments from the agency's other commissioners, will be circulated today as they get ready to vote Thursday on the proposals.

http://www.theverge.com/2014/5/11/5708402/fcc-chairman-wheeler-revises-net-neutrality-proposal-after-outcry

The FCC officials told the publication that Wheeler has redrafted his rules in an attempt to address the backlash to his initial proposal. That draft proposal, which offered an internet "fast lane" for bloated internet providers, was lambasted by some of the United States' biggest investors, technology companies, senators, and even Wheeler's own colleagues at the FCC. Wheeler himself has responded to public opposition, first in a blog post on the FCC's own site, in which he claimed that reports stating the FCC was "gutting" the open internet rule were false, and later in a letter published by The Washington Post.

An unnamed FCC source said that "the draft is explicit that the goal is to find the best approach to ensure the internet remains open and prevent any practices that threaten it," but it's still unclear how effectively the new proposal responds to criticisms of the previous draft. The Wall Street Journal says it will include "language that would make clear that the FCC will scrutinize the deals," but also that Wheeler is not deviating significantly from his previous proposal, sticking instead to "the same basic approach" as before.

http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/editorials/article/Discarding-Net-neutrality-is-a-bad-idea-5472560.php

He's an apostle of "paid prioritization" - his words for a two-track world - but he's backed off slightly. He's tempering this idea by suggesting that the agency screen any deals on faster service and consider regulating the Internet like a public utility.

It's a major change from the previous hands-off attitude of the agency. The Internet's legal category would switch from "information service" largely immune from federal oversight to "common carrier" subject to FCC scrutiny.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/05/09/on-net-neutrality-the-fccs-chairman-increasingly-stands-alone-2/

To outsiders, the FCC may seem like a black box: We haven't even seen a draft of the proposed rules that have critics so alarmed. But on the inside of the commission, a charged political battle is playing out that could set the tone for the commission's future. And the fault lines are mostly leaving the agency's head, Tom Wheeler, cut off from the rest of his colleagues.

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/05/net-neutrality-fcc-tom-wheeler-106605.html

Aides to Wheeler’s fellow Democratic commissioners, Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel, declined to comment on the revisions. Wheeler will have to find support from the Democrats because the two Republican commissioners oppose any network neutrality rules.

Rosenworcel and Republican Commissioner Ajit Pai last week called for the vote to be delayed. The FCC also plans to seek comment on two other net neutrality proposals offered by Mozilla and Tim Wu, the Columbia University law professor credited with coining the term “net neutrality.”

Many lawmakers already have weighed in. A group of 11 senators — including Democrats Ron Wyden of Oregon, Chuck Schumer of New York and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts — urged Wheeler in a letter last week to drop the Internet fast lane approach.