At last, FCC to vote Thursday on net neutrality rules

After nearly a year-long process, the Federal Communications Commission casts its all-important vote Thursday on the divisive issue of net neutrality.

The five-member board is expected to approve FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler's new rules that aim to preserve an open Internet and prevent Internet service providers from discriminating against content makers. But regardless what happens Thursday, the agency's action won't be the last word.

"It is a defining moment, but it will be redefined by the courts, Congress and other entities including the marketplace going forward," said Gary Arlen, a Bethesda, Md., research analyst. "But whatever they decide is going to be a benchmark."

Net neutrality has become a politicized and polarizing issue in the roughly 10 months since the commission began crafting new rules. The agency's previous regulations were tossed out by a federal court in January 2014.

More than 4 million comments on the subject were filed with the FCC — the largest number ever for a rule proposal — from Internet service providers such as AT&T and Verizon to organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union.

In general, Republicans share the ISPs' concerns that Wheeler's plan to regulate them as a utility — like traditional telephone service — under Title II of The Communications Act is overkill. The rules "may not ultimately provide net neutrality protections for American consumers ... (and) may raise rates for the American Internet users and could stymie Internet adoption, innovation and investment," Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., said Wednesday.

Walden, who chaired a hearing about the future of the Net in the House Commerce Communications and Technology subcommittee, has proposed open Internet legislation that would override the FCC's rules. Rather than rely on Title II, the plan would make it illegal for ISPs to block or deliberately slow content and would ban companies from charging to provide faster service.

"Uncertainty is what we hope to stave off," he said.

Democrats at the hearing would have none of that. Wheeler's proposal "is the only path the FCC can take to protect the open Internet," said Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif.

That's been the clarion call of strong net neutrality proponents, who want the FCC to have enough clout to prevent Net providers from curtailing access, services or content. In addition to Amazon and Netflix, supporters include civil rights groups and musicians including the members of R.E.M. and Aerosmith's Joe Perry.

"The Internet, which was once a luxury, is now a necessity, and it has given people the ability to be heard in our democracy and have more opportunity in our economy," said Rashad Robinson, executive director of Color for Change. "It has been a tool for the little guy to get ahead."

The clamor crescendoed beyond Capitol Hill. On Twitter, Netflix fired a shot across the bow of Comcast and other ISPs with a tweet suggesting that net providers would slow traffic if they weren't regulated.

But interested parties are talking past each other, said Hunter Newby, CEO of net company Allied Fiber. The FCC chief's proposal could affect the entire Internet, when the agency should only be worried about consumers, he said.

"There is so much confusion and mass hysteria that it has led to Title II," Newby said. "It is polluting something that is working fine."

But some action is needed to prevent the kind of consolidation that has engulfed the cable industry, said Alper Turgut, CEO of Anvato, a streaming video tech company. "If we have net neutrality, everybody is on equal footing so they compete on the app experience, the user experience and the content rather than on how fast (content is delivered)," he said.

Former congressman Rick Boucher, who previously chaired the committee and is now honorary chairman of the Internet Innovation Alliance, said that Wheeler's proposal, if approved by the FCC will be challenged in court. "We can predict the court decision would be years in the future," he said.

The draft legislation that Walden supports "moves in the right direction," he said and observed that Republicans and Democrats have moved closer on the issue. "It is a major development that everyone is talking about the best way to preserve net neutrality," Boucher said.

The public will remain engaged whatever the outcome, Robinson said. "We have fundamentally changed the conversation around the future of the Internet and that puts us in a much better position as we begin to … deal with the details to ensure that it's actually a strong, enforceable rule without loopholes."

Follow Mike Snider on Twitter: @MikeSnider