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"and then the government got involved..."

Net Neutrality Rules Finally Set, Go Into Effect November 20th, Hopefully

by Eric Limer | 4:36 pm, September 23rd, 2011

Ladies and gentlemen, the FCC has drafted its net neutrality rules and had them published. After being voted through at a 3 to 2 majority last year, they will go into effect November 20th, assuming they are not delayed by lawsuits. They will probably be delayed by lawsuits. Verizon and MetroPCS have been waiting in the wings, unable to file suit until the rules were finalized and made official so now is their time to pounce.

Despite the fact that no service provider would want to be bound to these rules, they actually seem pretty reasonable. The FCC’s own summary describes them as follows:

First, transparency: fixed and mobile broadband providers must disclose the network management practices, performance characteristics, and commercial terms of their broadband services. Second, no blocking: fixed broadband providers may not block lawful content, applications, services, or non-harmful devices; mobile broadband providers may not block lawful websites, or block applications that compete with their voice or video telephony services. Third, no unreasonable discrimination: fixed broadband providers may not unreasonably discriminate in transmitting lawful network traffic.

Although the real reason service providers will cause a fuss is because they want to retain the freedom to do all the things net neutrality prohibits (whether or not they are doing those things at the moment), the reason they’ll cite is that the FCC is overstepping its bounds. In order to file rules on net neutrality, the FCC — an organization typically concerned with broadcast media — invoked “ancillary jurisdiction” to argue its authority. It’s just about as subjective and arguable as it sounds. In contrast, the FCC could have reclassified broadband Internet to be clearly within their jurisdiction but didn’t, probably due to concerns that the pursuit may have required too much time or effort.

As it stands, the rules are on the table and not all together horrible for service providers. The rules regarding mobile Internet are actually quite lax and seem to allow providers to throttle bandwidth for certain apps. Still, considering that they could get these rules thrown out altogether if they win, it’s probably worthwhile for the providers to get lawsuitin’. Whether the rules are stopped dead in their tracks or merely delayed as they charge forward is yet to be seen, but here’s to hoping no website will become provider-specific any time soon.

Read the rules here.

(image, story via Ars Technica)

  • http://www.facebook.com/xbenwalkerx Ben Walker

    Headline typo

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=687991878 Dave Diem Martinez

    Good catch. I’ll fix it: “Novememememememember”.

  • Anonymous

    It’s really Novel Member

  • http://www.facebook.com/lonndugan Lonn Dugan

    Net Neutrality is Un-American. If your neighbor started parking in your driveway, keeping you from using it, and then selling used cars….  Would you be happy?  That’s what netflix does on the ISP network.  The ISP built a network to provide web access and priced it according to expected use (garden hose).  But now people are using it to watch netflix movies on TV in HD (fire hose).  Nobody is paying the ISP for the increased wear and tear, equipment, bandwidth, etc.  #FAIL

  • Warren Held

    The way we use the internet is constantly evolving.  Allowing ISPs to potentially block or throttle internet services just because they use more bandwidth than others just stifles innovation.  Maybe the ISPs should use some of their huge profits to upgrade their networks to handle the internet of tomorrow, instead of trying to squeeze every penny from their aging infrastructures.

  • http://twitter.com/pounddollarsign Michael Corey

    This is a problem for me. I think the rules proposed are the right and good thing to do, however I dislike the idea of telling companies what to do with their own equipment and services. I honestly can’t think of a a reason why the ISPs should be obliged to do this, no matter how much I really want them to.

  • http://www.facebook.com/zaylong Xavier Long

    apparently letting people have whatever applications they want and to  go on whatever websites they want is unamerican.

    have we really sunk that low that when we describe freedom we say its unamerican?


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