A divided Federal Communications Commission has approved new rules meant to prohibit broadband companies from interfering with Internet traffic flowing to their customers.
The 3-2 vote Tuesday marks a major victory for FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, who has spent more than a year trying to craft a compromise.
The FCC’s three Democrats voted to pass the rules, while the two Republicans opposed them, arguing that they amount to unnecessary regulation. The new rules are likely to face intense scrutiny on Capitol Hill once Republicans take over the House. Meanwhile, public interest groups decried the regulations as too weak, particularly for wireless systems.
Known as “net neutrality,” the rules prohibit phone and cable companies from favoring or discriminating against Internet content and services, such as those from rivals.
Copyright The Associated Press
1 thought on “FCC gets a victory…sort of”
Yeah, thanks FCC. Comcast can’t cut you off from YouTube now, but they can make it so slow that it takes an hour to load a low quality 3-minute video.
I loved the statement on how it enables some services to pay for faster speeds. The only way they can get “faster” speeds is if everybody else is slowed down in the first place.
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