As the Federal Communications Commission goes about drafting new rules for an open internet the date over net neutrality continues to heat up. There are big supporters on either side but yesterday those who are for net neutrality received the support of President Barack Obama, who urged the FCC to reclassify the internet as a utility. Initially the FCC was aiming to have the new rules in place by end of 2014 but now it says that this won’t be possible until 2015.
FCC chairman Tom Wheeler has said that the new rules will not come in force by the end of this year because the Commission needs “more time for analysis.” Wheeler made this comment in a response to the proposal put forward by President Obama yesterday.
The American public has had the chance of providing its point of view as well. During the open comment period the FCC found that the plans it proposed last spring didn’t sit too well with the public.
There’s quite a lot of negative sentiment against the so called “fast lanes” which would allow ISPs to speed up traffic to online services and websites based on their own preferences, and we’ve already seen the likes of Netflix paying ISPs just so its subscribers can get the streaming quality they expect.
FCC has said that there is no “official timetable” for when the new rules have to come out but Wheeler has made it clear in the past that he was aiming for end of 2014. That’s clearly not going to happen now.
Filed in . Read more about FCC.