Wheeler Makes it Official: Title II Neutrality Rules On The Way Confirming what many news outlets have been leaking for days, FCC boss Tom Wheeler today publicly confirmed he's proposing Title-II based net neutrality rules. The draft of the rules are currently being circulated only among Commissioners (at least until one of those Commissioners leaks it to the Washington Post), but Wheeler and the agency touched on the basic gist of the rules today. In a guest editorial over at Wired, Wheeler notes that his proposal will be the "strongest open internet protections ever proposed by the FCC" (which isn't saying much). Wheeler states that unlike the FCC's previous rules, the new net neutrality provisions will apply to both wired and wireless networks, and, contrary to ISP hand-wringing, won't cause much of a dent in overall industry investment: quote: All of this can be accomplished while encouraging investment in broadband networks. To preserve incentives for broadband operators to invest in their networks, my proposal will modernize Title II, tailoring it for the 21st century, in order to provide returns necessary to construct competitive networks. For example, there will be no rate regulation, no tariffs, no last-mile unbundling. Over the last 21 years, the wireless industry has invested almost $300 billion under similar rules, proving that modernized Title II regulation can encourage investment and competition. While neutrality supporters should be pleased the FCC boss shrugged off his lobbying past to support Title II based rules, the devil, as always, will be in the details. Will interconnection be adequately covered? Will zero rated apps (allowing some services bandwidth cap exemption)? Will the rules have strange, MPAA-mandated loopholes? What some are seeing as the end of a major battle is actually only the beginning, as ISPs have promised an immediate lawsuit once the rules are formally released on February 26.Update: the FCC has also released a While neutrality supporters should be pleased the FCC boss shrugged off his lobbying past to support Title II based rules, the devil, as always, will be in the details. Will interconnection be adequately covered? Will zero rated apps (allowing some services bandwidth cap exemption)? Will the rules have strange, MPAA-mandated loopholes? What some are seeing as the end of a major battle is actually only the beginning, as ISPs have promised an immediate lawsuit once the rules are formally released on February 26.: the FCC has also released a fact sheet for the new rules with moderately more detail.







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kapil

The Kapil

join:2000-04-26

Chicago, IL 4 recommendations kapil Member Close, but not quite. I call this a good start. Now let's complete the job and force the incumbent providers to unbundle the last mile and lease it to competitive providers. Treat them like the monopoly utilities they are. Net neutrality wouldn't be an issue if there was competition in the marketplace...and you ensure competition by lowering the bar of entry for multiple providers. The telecom act of 1996 was well on its way to doing just that before the ILECs found a way to effectively neuter it.