FCC strikes in Net neutrality war: Run Internet like a utility
The new rules would prohibit speeding up, slowing down or blocking broadband Internet traffic, under regulations that date back to the early days of the telephone business.
Marguerite ReardonFormer senior reporter
Marguerite Reardon started as a CNET News reporter in 2004, covering cellphone services, broadband, citywide Wi-Fi, the Net neutrality debate and the consolidation of the phone companies.
Roger Cheng (he/him/his) was the executive editor in charge of CNET News, managing everything from daily breaking news to in-depth investigative packages. Prior to this, he was on the telecommunications beat and wrote for Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal for nearly a decade and got his start writing and laying out pages at a local paper in Southern California. He's a devoted Trojan alum and thinks sleep is the perfect -- if unattainable -- hobby for a parent.
ExpertiseMobile, 5G, Big Tech, Social MediaCredentials
SABEW Best in Business 2011 Award for Breaking News Coverage, Eddie Award in 2020 for 5G coverage, runner-up National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Award for culture analysis.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler is ready to shake up the Internet.
Wheeler confirmed Wednesday that he intends to regulate wired and wireless broadband services under the Title II of the Communications Act of 1934, subjecting them to the same utility-style rules that oversee telephone service. He said Title II would ensure that the Internet remains open to everyone, a concept known as Net neutrality.
The application of Title II has the potential to radically change how the Internet is governed, giving the FCC unprecedented authority. The provision originally gave the agency the power to set rates and enforce the "common carrier" principle, or the idea that every customer gets treated fairly, on telephone service. Wheeler hopes to apply that principle to Internet traffic, preventing broadband providers from favoring one bit of data over another.
"I am submitting to my colleagues the strongest open Internet protections ever proposed by the FCC," he said in an op-ed published Wednesday on Wired.com.