President Barack Obama has urged the American telecom regulator FCC to keep the Internet open and free.
Obama believes that there should be no gatekeepers between you and your favorite online sites and services. If FCC accepts Obama’s recommendations, this will be a big block to top US wireless carriers who are looking to control price and quality of Internet services.
It’s time to keep the internet open and free. Read President Obama’s plan → http://t.co/3y3YLQD6MB #NetNeutrality pic.twitter.com/ifCoS1ty8j
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) November 10, 2014
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is in the process of considering new rules for how to safeguard competition and user choice.
“Ensuring a free and open Internet is the only way we can preserve the Internet’s power to connect our world,” Obama said.
ALSO READ: President Obama’s letter on net neutrality
“We cannot allow Internet service providers (ISPs) to restrict the best access or to pick winners and losers in the online marketplace for services and ideas. I am asking the FCC to answer the call of 4 million public comments, and implement the strongest possible rules to protect net neutrality,” said Obama.
President Obama does not have too many supporters.
The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), an association representing the manufacturers and suppliers of high-tech communications networks, said: “We are concerned over President Obama’s endorsement of reclassifying the Internet as a Title II utility-like telecom service. Such a move would set the industry back decades, and threaten the private sector investment that is critically needed to ensure that the network can meet surging demand.”
“We saw a significant negative impact on investment the last time restrictive Title II regulation was in place, and no one will benefit from returning to that failed policy. As manufacturers and suppliers who build the Internet backbone and supply the devices and services that ride over it, our companies strongly urge regulators to refrain from reclassification that will guarantee harm to consumers, the economy, and the very technologies we’re trying to protect,” said TIA CEO Scott Belcher.
Four years ago, the FCC tried to implement rules that would protect net neutrality with little to no impact on the telecommunications companies that make important investments in our economy.
Earlier, the court reviewing the rules agreed with the FCC that net neutrality was essential for preserving an environment that encourages new investment in the network. The court ultimately struck down the rules because it believed the FCC had taken the wrong legal approach.
Obama says there should be no blocking and throttling by ISPs. There should be more increased transparency. Some sites should not get more treatment.
Some companies should not enjoy paid prioritization. Wireless carriers should not keep some services in “slow lane” because it does not pay a fee. “That kind of gatekeeping would undermine the level playing field essential to the Internet’s growth. I am asking for an explicit ban on paid prioritization and any other restriction that has a similar effect,” Obama said.
FCC should reclassify consumer broadband service under Title II of the Telecommunications Act — while at the same time forbearing from rate regulation and other provisions less relevant to broadband services.
Baburajan K
editor@telecomlead.com
