Broadband News
News, views and analysis
FCC to vote on net neutrality - Pay-As-You-Go internet mooted
10 Dec 2010 | 10.26 Europe/London
After a year of industry wrangling and consultations, the FCC is to put its latest net neutrality proposals to the vote next week.
The regulator has appeased the telecoms industry by backing down on plans to reclassify broadband to the same level of control it has over the telephony market. It was feared this could allow the FCC to take more control over the types of service on offer and, crucially, their price.
Instead the FCC will now propose that it can regulate the broadband market from within its current power and be, what it calls, a ‘cop on the beat’ guarding against any broadband provider prioritising a partner’s content at the cost of slowing down the partner’s rivals.
Hence, all companies should be treated equally, and ISPs will not be able to block access to services altogether – ie an ISP with a deal with Hulu’s video online service will not be able to block or slow down rival Netflix’s offering.
PAYG broadband
There is also the possibility that at the meeting to discuss and vote on the net neutrality proposals a plan to allow Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) internet subscriptions will be discussed. The plans have in mind internet users who do not use video and do not game online, requiring far less content than may come included each month in their data limit.
On the industry side, the proposals could appeal to mobile broadband providers who fear the growth of online video, in particular, will clog their services which many in rural areas are coming to rely on as their only means of achieving broadband-like speeds.
Therein lies the rub. Critics fear this could lead to a two-tier internet where the urban rich are unlimited in their downloads and less well off rural communities are restricted from exploring the wealth of rich media content offered by the web.
So, next week’s meeting will be full of controversy and widely reported on. In the longer term, observers are already awaiting the first legal challenge to whatever decision the FCC makes. The body has already conceded it did not have the legal power to tell broadband providers how to run their services without reclassifying its powers. With no such reclassification, it is almost a certainty an ISP will raise a legal challenge.
The regulator has appeased the telecoms industry by backing down on plans to reclassify broadband to the same level of control it has over the telephony market. It was feared this could allow the FCC to take more control over the types of service on offer and, crucially, their price.
Instead the FCC will now propose that it can regulate the broadband market from within its current power and be, what it calls, a ‘cop on the beat’ guarding against any broadband provider prioritising a partner’s content at the cost of slowing down the partner’s rivals.
Hence, all companies should be treated equally, and ISPs will not be able to block access to services altogether – ie an ISP with a deal with Hulu’s video online service will not be able to block or slow down rival Netflix’s offering.
PAYG broadband
There is also the possibility that at the meeting to discuss and vote on the net neutrality proposals a plan to allow Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) internet subscriptions will be discussed. The plans have in mind internet users who do not use video and do not game online, requiring far less content than may come included each month in their data limit.
On the industry side, the proposals could appeal to mobile broadband providers who fear the growth of online video, in particular, will clog their services which many in rural areas are coming to rely on as their only means of achieving broadband-like speeds.
Therein lies the rub. Critics fear this could lead to a two-tier internet where the urban rich are unlimited in their downloads and less well off rural communities are restricted from exploring the wealth of rich media content offered by the web.
So, next week’s meeting will be full of controversy and widely reported on. In the longer term, observers are already awaiting the first legal challenge to whatever decision the FCC makes. The body has already conceded it did not have the legal power to tell broadband providers how to run their services without reclassifying its powers. With no such reclassification, it is almost a certainty an ISP will raise a legal challenge.