News On The Network Neutrality Law, A Concern For the World - via Netiquette IQ

The Network Neutrality Act has been, as stated in the news and the Netiquette IQ blog, rescinded recently. This is a potentially serious development for all netcitizens, more than four billion people! No matter what the censorship, access, charges or politics may be within a given country, the flow of global traffic is now threatened, even to to point of children's or sports programs . . . even education!

Many of the potential results of providing enormous power are of deep concern and all of the global community should make themselves aware and become involved within their own discretion. Here is the latest news.

Republicans protest FCC's net neutrality move, ISPs less concerned

AT&T and Comcast seem to support Wheeler's move to re-establish net neutrality rules

By Grant Gross, IDG News Service 

February 19, 2014, 3:31 PM — Some Republican policymakers objected to a new U.S. Federal Communications Commission plan to reinstate its net neutrality rules after a court threw them out, but broadband providers appeared to be less concerned.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler on Wednesday announced a plan to resurrect net neutrality regulations using authority under a section of the 1996 Telecommunications Act giving the agency responsibility to ensure the timely deployment of broadband.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled in January that the agency didn't have the authority to enforce the rules under its current classification of broadband as a largely unregulated information service, but the court left an opening for the FCC to enforce anti-blocking rules under Section 706 of the Telecom Act.

Wheeler's announcement drew criticism from two senior Republicans on the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee.

"No matter how many times the court says 'no,' the Obama administration refuses to abandon its furious pursuit of these harmful policies to put government in charge of the Web," Representatives Fred Upton of Michigan and Greg Walden of Oregon said in a joint statement. "These regulations are a solution in search of a problem, and with the many issues on its plate ... it would be wise for the commission to focus on fostering economic growth, job creation, and competition."

Broadband providers, however, didn't seem as upset about Wheeler's plan.

Verizon Communications, which challenged the net neutrality rules, "remains committed to an open Internet that provides consumers with competitive choices and unblocked access to lawful websites and content when, where, and how they want," spokesman Ed McFadden said by email.

Asked if Verizon would challenge this new effort, McFadden said the new rules are "all hypothetical at this stage, just like net neutrality itself."

Comcast, the largest wired broadband provider in the U.S., said it supported the FCC's December 2010 open Internet order establishing the net neutrality rules, although the company challenged an earlier FCC effort to enforce net neutrality guidelines.

The 2010 net neutrality rules were "an appropriate balance of protection of consumer and business interests," Comcast said in a statement. "With the direction announced today, FCC Chairman Wheeler has taken a thoughtful approach which creates a path for enforceable rules based on the appropriate authority outlined by the court's findings."

Comcast has agreed to net neutrality rules for seven years as a condition of its 2011 acquisition of NBC Universal.

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