A Win For Internet Users: District Court Rules Internet is Utility, Not Luxury

Susanne Posel (OC) : In the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, high-speed internet has been defined as a utility. The ruling has changed the net neutrality game.

Internet Neutrality_SP_OCLast year the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) outlined rules that the cable, telecom and wireless internet corporations claimed would ruin their businesses.

The cause for alarm was the controversial Title II, which the agency voting for back in February of 2015.

The crux of the controversy was an element of the Communications Act of 1934 and is now allowing internet service providers (ISPs) to charge content providers to deliver data on the affectionately called “internet fast lane”.

After a federal appellate court struck down aspects of the Open Internet Order of 2010, new rules could be conceived and implemented in replacement of those deleted mandates.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler introduced the Protecting and Promoting the Open Internet (PPOI) which struck at Title II with the suggestion that Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 be the legal standard by which IPSs would be regulated.

This section provides the FCC with the authority to regulate ISPs to “promote competition in the local telecommunications market” and “remove barriers to infrastructure investment,” but it is ambiguous on how that would empower the commission to safeguard net neutrality.

Republican and FCC Commissioner Michael O’Reilly warned that Title II is “an inappropriate framework for today’s dynamic technologies. Title II includes a host of arcane provisions. The idea that the commission can magically impose or sprinkle just the right amount of Title II on broadband providers is giving the commission more credit than it ever deserves.”

O’Reilly grossly opposed the proposition of reclassifying broadband as n utility “and the consequences it will have on the future investments” and investors; and of course consumers who will pay for the lack in profits with higher prices.

With the Appellate Court ruling, the fate of wireless and broadband services will be tangled up with those of common utility services which are subject to anti-blocking and discriminatory regulations.

Susanne Posel, Occupy Corporatism

Source Article from http://nsnbc.me/2016/06/15/a-win-for-internet-users-district-court-rules-internet-is-utility-not-luxury/

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