FCC OPEN INTERNET ORER 2010 FREE
In the early days of the debate over the extent to which the internet should be regulated, internet start-up companies such as Google and Netflix, whose businesses were built around free access to ISP infrastructure, sought regulatory protection to avoid potential financial obligations to contribute to network costs. But as the internet flourished, as companies developed business models dependent on free access to internet infrastructure, as smartphones and tablets replaced traditional stand-alone computers, and as the public embraced life-changing broadband applications, government regulators, public interest groups, elected officials, and some corporations decided the internet marketplace required more direct government oversight and should be regulated more comprehensively. Notably, the FCC’s legal authority to regulate the internet remained somewhat questionable given that its statutory authority was last updated in 1996, prior to the growth of broadband. The Federal Communications Commission (the Commission or FCC) primarily focused its efforts on ensuring that consumers had access to broadband infrastructure and gingerly asserted regulatory oversight to ensure that internet service providers (ISPs) did not unlawfully discriminate or block lawful content. To join the debate, please email us at more than two decades, the internet has flourished in an environment that was, until recently, essentially devoid of heavy-handed regulatory oversight. We also invite responses from our readers. Whenever we publish an article that advocates for a particular position, as here, we offer links to other perspectives on the issue, including ones opposed to the position taken in the article. Any expressions of opinion are those of the author. The Federalist Society takes no positions on particular legal and public policy matters. Stay tuned for further updates as we digest this controversial order.Note from the Editor: This article traces the history of the FCC’s approach to regulating the internet and favorably reports on the changes the new FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is making. For a copy of the slide presentation, please click here. To access a recording of the webinar, please click here. Kelley Drye will be hosting a webinar on the new rules on Tuesday, March 24 at noon Eastern time. Appeals can be filed once the Order is published in the Federal Register, a process that may take a week or more to be completed. The Order also moves the Open Internet rules one step closer to judicial review. The release of the Order enables everyone to begin the process of dissecting the dense 300+ pages of rules and explanations for the Commission’s action. It also forbears from many provisions of Title II, while applying other of the traditional Title II provisions. On Thursday, March 12, 2015, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released the text of its long-awaited Open Internet Order, which it adopted on February 26, 2015.Īs we discussed in a previous blog post, the FCC voted 3-2, along party lines, to reclassify “broadband Internet access service” (including both fixed and mobile broadband) as a “telecommunications service” under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, and to apply new prohibitions on blocking, throttling and paid prioritization.