This bill would prohibit the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from classifying broadband services as a public utility under Title II of the Communications Act — directly challenging the FCC decision in early 2015 to reclassify the Internet as a telecommunications service instead of an information service.





The new rules don't allow the FCC to have a say in how broadband providers manage their networks with pricing or engineering decisions. However, opponents of that decision, and supporters of this bill believe that a classifying the Internet as a public utility welcomes bureaucratic federal meddling and a loss of investors.





As a telecommunications service, the FCC has much more control over the Internet, subjecting it to the same non-discrimination, common carrier regulations as other utilities. With an "information service" classification, the FCC would have less regulatory power.

