FCC Chief to Seek February Vote on Open-Internet Rule Proposal
Source: Business Week
The U.S. regulator writing new open-Internet rules plans to submit a proposal as early as next month and ask the Federal Communications Commission to vote on it Feb. 26.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler “intends to circulate an Open Internet order in February, aiming for a vote at that month’s meeting,” Kim Hart, an FCC spokeswoman, said today in an e-mail.
The agency is writing requirements for Internet providers to treat all content equally -- a policy known as net neutrality -- after an earlier set of rules were struck down in a legal challenge brought by Verizon Communications Inc.
President Barack Obama on Nov. 10 called for the “strongest possible rules” to protect the open Internet, including a ban on so-called fast lanes, going further than Wheeler had planned. Companies led by Verizon, Comcast Corp. and AT&T Inc. have said that only light regulation is needed to ensure providers don’t block or slow Web traffic, and that strict rules would squelch investment.
Read more: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2015-01-02/fcc-chief-to-seek-february-vote-on-open-internet-rule-proposal
= new reply since forum marked as read
Why don"t they just increase capacity?
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/11/14/1344980/-FCC-to-AT-T-About-those-net-neutrality-nbsp-threats
Joan McCarter
This week, AT&T engaged in a little extortion over net neutrality, when CEO Randall Stephenson said that the company would halt its efforts to extend new high-speed Internet connections in 100 U.S. cities because of the possibility that the Federal Communications Commission might impose net neutrality regulations. This attempt by the company to throw their weight around on the issue apparently did not amuse the FCC, which has called the company's bluff.
The agency emailed AT&T Friday asking for more information about that announcement, including "all documents" related to that decision.
The request may not be great news for AT&T, which still needs the FCC to sign off on its $48 billion deal to acquire DirecTV. Stephenson’s threat to stop the company's fiber build-out may help bolster the case of Internet providers that net neutrality rules advocated by President Obama would hurt investment in networks. But it doesn't help the case with regulators that allow AT&T to buy DirecTV will expand high-speed broadband access to millions of Americans who currently can't get it.
FCC officials also want to know if AT&T's financial model "demonstrates that fiber deployment is now unprofitable" and whether laying fiber to more than two million homes after the DirecTV acquisition "would be unprofitable." AT&T has a week to respond.
FULL story at link.
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FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler.
