Turmoil has engulfed the FCC chairman’s latest effort to write the rules. The rush to save net neutrality plan

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler is on the clock and scrambling to salvage his controversial net neutrality plan as the commission counts down to a crucial vote on Thursday.

According to FCC officials, he circulated his latest revisions Monday — trying to pick up the two votes he needs to pass the notice of proposed rule-making to ensure an open Internet.


In the most significant change, Wheeler will seek public comment on whether the FCC should reclassify broadband as a communications utility, giving the agency authority to regulate Internet rates and services as it does with telephone companies, according to commission officials. Net neutrality advocates favor that option as more robust, but it’s opposed by telecoms that fear it will give the government too much power over their business.

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Wheeler’s original plan sparked outrage after details emerged that it would allow Internet-service providers, such as AT&T and Verizon, to charge companies like Netflix, Amazon and Google for faster delivery of content. The revised proposal keeps that basic approach but would seek comment on whether a “fast lane” should be banned. It also proposes a new ombudsman position at the FCC to act as a net neutrality advocate for startups and consumers.

“He’s trying to address concerns from his fellow Democrats on the Hill and at the FCC,” said Paul Gallant, managing director of Guggenheim Securities, a financial advisory firm. Democrats are concerned Wheeler is not asking enough questions about the proposal’s impact on consumers, he said.

Turmoil has engulfed the FCC chairman’s latest effort to write the rules. The agency’s previous attempt was thrown out by a court as legally flawed.

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Aides to Wheeler’s fellow Democratic commissioners, Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel, declined to comment on the revisions. Wheeler will have to find support from the Democrats because the two Republican commissioners oppose any network neutrality rules.

Rosenworcel and Republican Commissioner Ajit Pai last week called for the vote to be delayed. The FCC also plans to seek comment on two other net neutrality proposals offered by Mozilla and Tim Wu, the Columbia University law professor credited with coining the term “net neutrality.”

Many lawmakers already have weighed in. A group of 11 senators — including Democrats Ron Wyden of Oregon, Chuck Schumer of New York and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts — urged Wheeler in a letter last week to drop the Internet fast lane approach.

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“Small businesses, content creators and Internet users must not be held hostage by an increasingly consolidated broadband industry,” they wrote.

But looming over the debate is how Internet activists and tech giants will react moving forward. They have been here before: Major Internet players like Google and Wikipedia took part in the mass online protest against the Stop Online Piracy Act in early 2012, a coordinated action that spurred lawmakers to drop SOPA and a similar bill in the Senate.

Wheeler’s proposal “is trending in the right direction, from where it was before, but there’s still a lot more work to be done,” said Michael Beckerman, president of the Internet Association, a trade group representing Google, Facebook, Amazon.com and other tech giants. He described Thursday as “Day One, the beginning and not the end” of the debate.

The FCC is already fielding a barrage of calls and comments regarding net neutrality, having received nearly 35,000 letters and emails. The agency has extended its comment period and its phones are ringing off the hook. The FCC’s main switchboard is playing a message urging those calling about the “open Internet” to email the agency, instead.

Free Press and other advocacy groups that favor strong net neutrality rules are organizing a rally on Thursday in front of FCC headquarters.

While the views of large companies have grabbed headlines when it comes to net neutrality, the issue has sparked concern from other sectors.

Libraries, which often provide free Internet access for low-income populations and already face tightening budgets, might be subject to higher costs under the new rules, said Larra Clark, director of the American Library Association’s network program.

“We purchase and provide access to streaming media and online learning platforms, so if those costs for those services go up, that’s another cost that would have to be absorbed by libraries,” Clark said.

The push for support will continue Wednesday as the commission prepares for a packed house at Thursday’s meeting. Meanwhile, the FCC announced that Gigi Sohn, Wheeler’s senior counsel for external affairs, will hold a Twitter chat Tuesday on net neutrality.

Tony Romm, Jessica Meyers, Erin Mershon and Alex Byers contributed to this report.