Jewel B.: Proposed by FCC is net neutrality 3rd Way

Affordable internet access to all Americans is called Net neutrality. Some broadband providers have proposed to start charging quite a bit more to their customers for higher levels of service, much like cell phone companies. The Federal Communications Commission began an uproar in the net neutrality debate on Thursday when it announced to the world that it will seek public remark on imposing new regulations on Internet service providers to keep them from offering tiered service. Within the meantime, Capitol Hill tries to define FCC's authority better. But the FCC doesn’t want to wait for Congress to do it before it regains control of the net neutrality issue.

Article Source: FCC proposes net neutrality Third Way By Personal Money Store

The net neutrality of FCC

Consumer groups and free speech advocate groups like savetheinternet.com are in favor of net neutrality. Free market advocates and internet service providers are against it. Until last week the two proposed versions of net neutrality legislation would have prohibited: (1) the “tiering” of broadband through either sale of voice- or video-oriented Quality of Service packages; and (2) content- or service-sensitive blocking or censorship on the part of broadband carriers. Last week, the FCC released what is known as the “Third Way” plan.

Net neutrality and the Third Way

Net neutrality under the third way, according to the Washington Post, is this: Currently, broadband is defined as an data service, which means it doesn’t face much FCC oversight. The new plan is to shift broadband to the exact same classification as telephone service, which would trigger a whole lot more oversight by the agency. The FCC explains that it would not subject Internet service providers to the full brunt of regulation that would come with the new classification.

Comcast and their net neutrality case

The FCC’s Third Way is an effort to regain control of the issue on net neutrality in response to a Federal Court decision in April that overturned a 2008 FCC ruling within the actual Comcast net neutrality case. In 2007, Comcast was found to be blocking or severely delaying BitTorrent uploads on their network, claiming that downloading huge amounts of data was clogging the network. In August 2008, the FCC ruled that Comcast broke the law when it throttled the bandwidth accessible to certain customers for video files in order to make sure that other customers had adequate bandwidth.

Time Warner and also the net neutrality challenge

In a 2009 test of the net neutrality issue, Time Warner Cable announced its objective to offer broadband packages in 10GB, 20GB, 40GB and 60GB batches. Capped at $75, the plan charges $1 per GB. Time Warner launched the pricing system in several markets. The business later announced that it would offer larger packages. Eventually they had to abandon the Time Warner net neutrality challenge.

Supporters of net neutrality

The FCC voted Thursday to start the controversial strategy of reclassifying high-speed Internet access to provide the agency authority over service providers that could prevent disparate treatment of customers. As outlined by the Channel Web, last week, a group of 13 companies including Amazon, Google and Sony sent the FCC a letter in support of the 3rd Way saying that it will ensure that consumers have access to an open Internet, one that would preserve a level playing field for all participants. The net neutrality supporters said the 3rd Way does so without regulating the Internet but by making use of basic rules of the road to the transmission services that supply access to the Internet.

Being against net neutrality

Republicans in Congress are adamantly against net neutrality any which way. It was reported by the Los Angeles Times that Republicans offer the familiar argument the Third Way is more government meddling in a free market that will stunt innovation and investment, echoing their Internet-service provider patrons. Texas Republican senator Kay Bailey Hutchison speaking out against net neutrality said the agency has created “new burdensome regulations that threaten to stifle the growth of America’s broadband services.”

Net neutrality letter from Google

But Google cheered the FCC’s decision. "As we have said before, broadband infrastructure is too essential to be left outside of any oversight,” the company said. Massachusetts Democratic senator Edward J. Markey applauded the FCC’s move, calling it a “light-touch regulatory proposal” that would ensure “continued innovation, consumer protection and certainty in the broadband marketplace.”

Jewel B.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Proposed by FCC is net neutrality 3rd Way

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