WASHINGTON, D.C. Feb. 27 (DPI) – The Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 yesterday for sweeping changes in the way it regulates the internet, in effect deciding to supervise the net as if it were a utility and thereby ensuring a uniform flow of bandwidth for all.
While the ruling is widely seen as victory for proponents of net neutrality – and for the White House, which pushed for the new rules – the new regulation may strengthen the competitive position of existing monopoly internet providers.
It will also likely trigger years of litigation as the two political parties – neither with overwhelming mandates – fight over how the medium that’s transformed all our lives should be regulated. The two Republican-appointed members of the FCC voted against the measure. “Somehow I don’t think this settles the matter,” wrote one poster yesterday. “It just feels like another business opportunity for Democrats and Republicans to milk their constituents of money, for a long time.”
As The New York Times reported yesterday:
The impact of the new rules will hinge partly on details that are not yet known. The rules will not be published for at least a couple of days, and will not take effect for probably at least a couple of months. Lawsuits to challenge the commission’s order are widely expected.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/27/technology/net-neutrality-fcc-vote-internet-utility.html
Most of the more than 2700 comments on WashingtonPost.com reflected the ongoing partisan divide over whether the ruling accomplishes its objective of net neutrality.
In any case Republicans and their Big Telecom sponsors – like Verizon and AT&T – said they will challenge the ruling simply because it gives the FCC sweeping new powers over the providers of bandwidth. Comcast, the legacy cable company that is one of the largest internet providers in the US, publicly lobbied for the new rules, a sure sign that the FCC ruling would help its competitive position, which has been eroding.
Opponents will point out that content originators such as Netflix had already agreed to pay Verizon and other carriers for ensuring ample bandwidth for their streaming videos. What’s more, internet and wireless are virtually the same business now – carriers like Verizon and AT&T deliver internet to all kinds of personal devices today, and the federal government had no real control or influence over that technological trend, which overwhelmed the marketplace and society in a few short years.
Few industries are as enmeshed in public policy and government regulation as Big Telecom. For starters the largest internet providers sank billions into their infrastructure when they pivoted to both the internet and to wireless, so keeping out competitors with new technologies became important in the last decade. For instance Congress, supported by its telecom patrons, two year ago denied radio frequencies to a startup, forcing it into bankruptcy. The company, Lightsquared, was developing satellite internet technology that would have leapfrogged the existing technology, posing a competitive threat.
Moreover, Big Telecom is the federal government’s closest and most important private partner in national security matters, including surveillance. That development of course has redefined the relationship between federal regulators and large telecommunications firms in recent years.