Progressives have promoted net neutrality for years, asking our elected Democrats to establish it as the law of the land. Unfortunately, since Democrats didn't act when they had the chance, congressional Republicans have taken up a subset of Democratic solutions but will legislatively limit a key panacea for telecom abuse.
Although President Obama's choice of Tom Wheeler, a telecom industry lobbyist and venture capitalist, to run the FCC seems more like a "fox in the henhouse," Obama has recently taken a stand for net neutrality:
"We cannot allow Internet service providers (ISPs) to restrict the best access or to pick winners and losers in the online marketplace for services and ideas," Obama said in a statement, adding, "Simply put: No service should be stuck in a 'slow lane' because it does not pay a fee."
The GOP response predictably opposed any rules requiring Internet service providers to treat all Web traffic equally, calling them unnecessary and an example of Washington overreach. Oregon Senator Greg Walden, Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee claimed that Obama's call to regulate consumer broadband service as a utility
threatens our thriving Internet economy.
“The Internet was born here in the United States. It flourished because the federal government had the foresight to get out of the way and let the innovative U.S. economy foster its growth. Sadly, it appears the president is abandoning the successful hands-off policy of his Republican and Democratic predecessors in favor of centrally controlled Internet policy. This is a mistake."
Now that Republicans control both houses of Congress, they plan to utilize some of the Democratic ideas we've pushed for, like preventing cable companies from throttling streaming by their key competitor (Netflix), thereby appeasing the millions of people from both sides of the political aisle who complained to the FCC about “paid prioritization” with petitions and calls for net neutrality. But don't expect your ISP costs to go down. Real change won't ever happen because the Republicans will prevent this public resource from blossoming into the superhighway it was once destined to be.
Sen Walden has announced a new Republican bill that “gives the protections that the president and FCC say they want, and does it in a legally sustainable way.” What that means is they'll prevent another public uproar by establishing some limits, but will legislatively prohibit the FCC from reclassifying broadband as a utility under Title II of the Communications Act.
Why should we care if the Internet is treated as a public utility? Take a look at the few cities in our country that provide internet access to citizens. They get fast speeds, low costs, and enhanced education in the local schools without public resources being drained away into the pockets of the rich.
I believe government should be an entity we use to pool our money and create programs and infrastructure that function for the betterment of most citizens. That's why we build roads, fund schools, create massive sophisticated communications systems like the Internet... whoops, I guess that one got side tracked by the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
It's time to TAKE IT BACK before the millions of people who support net neutrality get distracted again by movies and TV shows coming through at fast download speeds thanks to the elected members of Congress who manage to get their act together to act on this.