After months of debate over “net neutrality,” the Federal Communications Commission on Dec. 21 approved enforceable rules
preventing broadband companies from giving preferential treatment to
various traffic on the Internet or discriminating against rivals’
content and services. The rules vary, however, in regard to broadband
providers and wireless carriers.
The FCC, in a statement, said it had “acted to preserve the Internet as
an open network enabling consumer choice, freedom of expression, user
control, competition and the freedom to innovate.”
A pet project of FCC Chariman Julius Genachowski,
the highly contested vote passed 3-2, with the FCC’s three Democrats
voting in favor of it and its two Republicans opposing it.
“As we stand here now, the freedom and openness of the Internet are
unprotected. No rules on the books to protect basic Internet values,”
Genachowski said in his own statement. “No process for monitoring
Internet openness as technology and business models evolve. No recourse
for innovators, consumers, or speakers harmed by improper practices.
And no predictability for Internet service providers, so that they can
effectively manage and invest in broadband networks.”
The vote, he added, changes all of this.
The new rules require broadband providers to allow subscribers to
access all legal online content, but gives them the ability to manage
data that could create network congestion and unwanted traffic, as long
as they disclose these practices.
Wireless providers are also required to allow subscribers access to all
Web sites and competing applications, such as VOIP (voice over IP)
calling services, and to likewise disclose their network management
practices. But more leeway is given to wireless companies, with the
commission’s adopted Report and Order stating that “mobile broadband
presents special considerations that suggest differences in how and
when open Internet protections should apply.”
It goes on to say that most consumers have more choices for mobile
broadband than fixed broadband, that mobile broadband speeds, capacity
and penetration are typically lower than for fixed services, and that
mobile networks face operational constraints that fixed networks do
not. This puts greater pressure, it adds, on what constitutes
“reasonable network management” for mobile providers — which it defines
as including “appropriate and tailored” practices such as ensuring
network security and integrity, addressing traffic unwanted by users
and reducing or mitigating the effects of congestion on the network.
“Further, we recognize that there have been meaningful recent moves
toward openness, including the introduction of open operating systems
like Android. In addition, we anticipate soon seeing the effects on the
market of the openness conditions we imposed on mobile providers that
operate on upper 700 MHz C-Block spectrum, which includes Verizon
Wireless, one of the largest mobile wireless carriers in the U.S.,” the
FCC wrote in the Report and Order. “In light of these considerations,
we conclude it is appropriate to take measured steps at this time to
protect the openness of the Internet when accessed through mobile
broadband.”
Not everyone is convinced the controversial rules
will work. Charles King, an analyst with Pund-IT Research, described
the new rules as basically allowing the wireless carriers to police
themselves without a great deal of oversight from any official agency.
He would have found it more palatable, he told eWEEK, had the FCC taken
a harder line with the wireless carriers.
Republicans have vowed to block the new
legislation, which they say may discourage phone and cable companies
from upgrading their networks and receiving strong returns on their
investment, the Associated Press reported, adding that Robert McDowell,
a Republican member of the commision, predicts that the FCC will “face
court challenges to its regulatory authority.”
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