FCC Aggressively Revives Net Neutrality -- PatDollard.com, Hillicon Valley, The Hill

Excerpted from Hillicon Valley: The Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday said it plans to revamp its rules for net neutrality, ushering in a new battle over whether the government should flex its regulatory powers over the Internet.

The future of the FCC’s “open Internet” rules was left in doubt last month after an appeals court overturned them on the grounds that the agency overstepped its authority.

But Tom Wheeler, the FCC’s chairman, said the agency is not backing down from net neutrality, and on Wednesday announced a series of steps aimed at ensuring that Internet providers treat all traffic the same.


“Preserving the Internet as an open platform for innovation and expression while providing certainty and predictability in the marketplace is an important responsibility of this agency,” Wheeler said in a statement.

In its ruling against the net-neutrality rules, the D.C. appeals court said the FCC’s rules treated Internet providers too similarly to the way the agency treats traditional phone companies, which are more heavily regulated.

A senior FCC official on Wednesday said Wheeler will not attempt to reclassify Internet providers, nor will he appeal the court’s decision.

Instead, Wheeler will start a new process to rewrite the rules to keep providers from blocking and slowing access to websites. Keep reading (Click link below to read more)
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