By Brian Fung | CNN
The US government aims to restore sweeping regulations for high-speed internet providers, such as AT&T, Comcast and Verizon, reviving “net neutrality” rules for the broadband industry – and an ongoing debate about the internet’s future.
The proposed rules from the Federal Communications Commission will designate internet service — both the wired kind found in homes and businesses as well as mobile data on cellphones — as “essential telecommunications” akin to traditional telephone services, according to multiple people familiar with the plan. The rules would ban internet service providers (ISPs) from blocking or slowing down access to websites and online content, the people told CNN. Bloomberg was first to report the news.
Agency chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel plans to unveil the proposal in a speech at the National Press Club on Tuesday, the people added, saying the FCC plans to vote Oct. 19 on whether to advance the draft rules by soliciting public feedback on them — a step that would precede the creation of any final rules.
In addition to the prohibitions on blocking and throttling internet traffic, the draft rules also seek to prevent ISPs from selectively speeding up service to favored websites or to those that agree to pay extra fees, the people added, a move designed to prevent the emergence of “fast lanes” on the web that could give some websites a paid advantage over others.
With Tuesday’s proposal, the FCC aims to restore Obama-era regulations that the telecom and cable industries spent years fighting in court, and that the FCC under Republican leadership rolled back during the Trump administration. If the FCC’s latest effort is successful, it could open the door to further rules focused on the broadband industry that deal with national security, public safety or consumer privacy — regulations the FCC cannot design without leaning on some of its most powerful legal tools, one of the people said.
A net…
Read the full article here