net neutrality

FCC chairman Tom Wheeler will be back in the witness chair this week, facing two more committees that intend to keep up the heat following the commission’s 3-2 party-line vote to treat Internet service as a utility.

Some key Senate Democrats are giving signals that they may join with Republicans in support of bipartisan legislation to replace federal net neutrality regulations. Lawmakers have a steep hill to climb to reach any compromise on the issue, which so far has created a sharp divide between Democrats and Republicans. But the prospect that a lawsuit will strike down the rules or that a future FCC will undo them might be prompting Democrats to renew talks with GOP lawmakers about a possible bill.

Top White House aides met with the head of the FCC at least nine times while it was working on strong Internet regulations without telling the public, House Republicans revealed today.  Agency head Tom Wheeler defended the lack of disclosure about the meetings during a hearing in the House Oversight Committee on Tuesday, claiming that the tough new net neutrality rules never came up in those talks.

Today, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will convene the first hearing on the subject since the FCC voted last month to put the Internet in the same regulatory camp as the telephone, using the 1934 Communications Act. This means that whenever a company provides an Internet connection, it has to act in the public interest and not do anything considered “unjust or unreasonable.”

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler will appear before five congressional committees over the next two weeks, facing off with Republicans over his net neutrality plan.

The FCC today released the full text of its recently approved net neutrality rules, which face legal challenges and congressional pushback. The rules alone run for 313 pages. Including the statements of the five commissioners, the document hits 400 pages, with the two GOP dissents taking up the final 79 pages. The rules were approved two weeks ago on a 3-2 vote and have proved controversial throughout the yearlong rule-making process. The FCC is sending the order to the Federal Register, and it will take effect 60 days after publication.

My column last week saying that broadcasters were among the winners in the FCC’s new net neutrality rules, was challenged by Bonten Media Group’s Randy Bongarten. I had it all wrong, he said. As a TV medium, broadcasters’ great advantage is their ability to deliver programming to the most people at the lowest cost, he said. What net neutrality will do is strip broadcasting of that advantage by allowing big companies like Netflix, Amazon and Google to distribute TV over the Internet at artificially low prices.

The FCC will be sued by companies seeking to overturn net neutrality rules the agency passed last week, Chairman Tom Wheeler said. “The big dogs have promised that they’re going to litigate,” he said at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona today.

Netflix has acted to subtly reframe the debate in Washington over the FCC’s proposed Title II public utility regulation of the Internet in the name of “net neutrality.” Netflix, known for its innovation in reshaping the entertainment industry, worked to add unprecedented regulations to new net neutrality rules that will cement its power, eliminate its current costs and, in turn, pass those costs onto all Internet users to benefit its bottom line.

Without even trying, broadcasters emerged winners from the FCC’s adoption yesterday of tough new rules overseeing Internet access. Why? Because broadcasters are very much in the digital business and that business now has some protection against discriminatory treatement by Internet gatekeepers.

Yesterday, the FCC agreed to rules that would ban service providers from creating Internet fast lanes. Here’s a look at what Net neutrality means and what’s likely to happen next:

The FCC voted today along party lines to approve sweeping changes to how it regulates the Internet, capping more than a year of noisy debate that sparked millions of public comments and drew the attention of President Barack Obama and congressional leaders. AT&T has already threatened a legal challenge.

The FCC will vote today on whether to put Internet service in the same regulatory camp as your telephone. Some critics talk about the plan like it’s a government takeover of your Netflix account. Supporters say it’ll protect the status quo without price controls or new taxes. But the lobbyists and politicians aren’t telling the whole story. Here’s a look at some of the questionable rhetoric in the Nnet neutrality debate.

Two prominent House committee chairs are “deeply disappointed” in FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler for refusing to testify before Congress as “the future of the Internet is at stake.” Wheeler’s refusal to go before the House Oversight Committee today comes on the eve of the FCC’s vote on new Internet regulations pertaining to net neutrality. The committee’s chairman, Rep. Jason Chaffetz, and Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton criticized Wheeler and the administration for lacking transparency on the issue.

The FCC is poised on Thursday to give tech companies their latest in a series of victories in Washington, one that will see strong new rules applied to Internet providers such as Verizon and Cablevision. The decision marks a key achievement for tech firms after a months-long campaign against some of the communications industry’s most sophisticated lobbying operations. And it holds major implications for the way consumers experience the Internet.

Mignon Clyburn, one of three Democrats on the FCC, wants to narrow the scope of new Net neutrality rules that are set for a vote on Thursday. She has asked Chairman Tom Wheeler to roll back some of the restrictions before the full commission votes on them, FCC officials say.

Former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt: “Ever since the Internet exploded into our lives like the big bang, Republicans and Democrats have sometimes disagreed about the role of government with respect to this new global medium. Partisan conflict flared this month when FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler proposed a “net-neutrality” rule favored by President Obama. The disagreement goes well beyond the matter of the rule itself. At issue is the meaning of independence for New Deal and progressive-era regulatory agencies such as the FCC.”

GOP FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai is taking the lead in crafting and articulating the conservative argument against Democratic Chairman Tom Wheeler’s plan, which represents one of the most sweeping efforts to regulate communications in the agency’s history.

Republications are calling on the FCC to turn over communications the agency had with the White House on Chairman Tom Wheeler’s net neutrality proposal. They are probing whether the administration “inappropriately influenced” the agency.

The people clamoring for tough, new regulations for Internet service got pretty much everything they wanted in the proposals outlined by the head of the FCC. The proposed rules would take away every opportunity for Internet providers to play favorites—except oneThe new rules don’t explicitly block a practice known as zero-rating, in which Internet providers exempt certain types of traffic from counting against data caps.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler confirmed Wednesday he’s seeking strong net neutrality rules that regulate broadband service like a utility, matching a vision laid out by President Barack Obama and setting up a high-stakes standoff with the telecom industry and congressional Republicans.

The chairman of the FCC this week is widely expected to propose regulating Internet service like a public utility, a move certain to unleash another round of intense debate and lobbying about how to ensure so-called net neutrality, or an open Internet.

Republican lawmakers in the House and Senate have unveiled legislation that would require broadband providers to follow some Net neutrality principles, but would also prevent the FCC from enacting more stringent rules.

Republicans in Congress are doing a 180 on net neutrality as the FCC  prepares to issue new rules. For years, GOP lawmakers have adamantly opposed any rules requiring Internet service providers to treat all Web traffic equally, calling them unnecessary and an example of Washington overreach. But now that the FCC is moving toward issuing a tough net neutrality order that would subject broadband to utility-style regulation — an approach endorsed by President Barack Obama — top Republicans in both chambers are making plans to legislate their own rules to ensure the agency doesn’t go too far.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler didn’t say so directly, but he left little doubt that he and fellow Democrats on the commission will stand up to cable and telco Internet providers next month by adopting net neutrality rules that redefine broadband as a regulated, communications service.

A pair of congressional Democrats is bringing back legislation to ban “fast lanes” on the Internet, weeks before federal regulators weigh in. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Calif.) are introducing the Online Competition and Consumer Choice Act on Wednesday, as one of the first acts in the new Congress.

The FCC will introduce and vote on new net neutrality rules in February, ending weeks of speculation over when the commission would make its next move on the subject. Sources close to the agency also report momentum is building for more aggressive regulations than originally proposed.

The FCC is racing to write rules that require Internet service providers to treat all Web traffic equally, and many expect the agency will follow President Barack Obama’s call to treat broadband service like a utility. Telecom giants and Republican lawmakers say that will create burdensome new regulation — and the issue has already incited a lobbying frenzy, raised the specter of lawsuits and ignited new partisan fires on Capitol Hill.

New Net neutrality rules are “essential” to protect openness on the Web, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said in a new letter to Congress. “I believe that the Internet must remain an open platform for free expression, innovation, and economic growth,” Wheeler wrote to Rep. Bob Goodlatte in a letter dated Dec. 9 and made public this week. “We cannot allow broadband networks to cut special deals to prioritize Internet traffic and harm consumers, competition, and innovation.”

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler on Thursday said he hopes to move “quickly” on new neutrality rules but declined to offer a specific timetable. “I think I said that I want to do it quickly, I want to do it right, and I want to do it sustainably,” he told reporters after the commission’s open meeting. When asked again if it would come in February or March of next year, he said only, “Quickly, right, sustainable.”

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is under pressure from President Obama to issue the strongest possible net neutrality rules despite the vehement objections of industry groups and Republicans on Capitol Hill. But “going big” with the rules would be hugely controversial, likely drawing accusations that Wheeler is playing politics with the work of an independent agency.

Federal regulators writing new net neutrality rules want to make sure their regulations can withstand a court challenge. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler told reporters on Friday that he was fully expecting major cable companies to sue over the new rules, no matter what they look like. “The big dogs are going to sue regardless of what comes out,” Wheeler told reporters.

Net neutrality rules will be left off the schedule at the FCC’s final public meeting of the year, according to a tentative agenda released Thursday. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler had wanted to finalize rules by the end of the year. But FCC officials had previously confirmed it would be pushed back following President Obama’s recommendations on the issue.

The president’s tough net neutrality remarks undermine weeks of FCC work to develop an alternative policy, which FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has said in private meetings could preserve a free and open Web while also addressing concerns by the Internet providers.

Even before President Obama issued his forceful call this week for “the strongest possible rules” to protect an open Internet, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler was in a tight spot. Since those remarks, say people who met with Wheeler this week, he has been testy, defensive and a bit angry that he might be seen as a political pawn instead of as the head of an independent agency who is exercising his own judgment.

Comcast still expects to close the deal with New York-based Time Warner Cable by the end of March, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said. If the acquisition is approved, Comcast will have more than 32 million Internet service subscribers. As part of its commitment to getting the Time Warner deal done, Roberts said Comcast still intends to spend about $20 billion during the next two years to improve its Internet service and other products.

A top FCC official on Wednesday said the independent agency has not made a decision on whether to follow President Obama’s recommendations on net neutrality. Gigi Sohn, a special counsel in FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s office, pushed back against a report in The Washington Post that highlighted differences between Obama and Wheeler.

Net neutrality was divisive before. Now it’s explosive — and more political than ever. President Barack Obama on Monday offered his strongest endorsement to date for rules that would treat all Internet traffic equally, and FCC officials are now discussing net neutrality options with a divided Internet industry and Capitol Hill audience.

President Barack Obama on Monday struck a blow to large cable and wireless companies by publicly pressuring the FCC to adopt tougher rules that would treat Internet providers more like public utilities.

With the FCC considering whether Internet providers should be allowed to cut deals with online services like Netflix, Amazon or YouTube to move their content faster, here are some questions and answers about the concept of “net neutrality.”