The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Thursday announced the final net neutrality or open Internet guidelines.
The main highlight of the net neutrality norms will force the U.S. wireless service providers such as AT&T, Verizon, etc. to avoid blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization of broadband access to their customers.
This will assist content providers such as Netflix, Google, YouTube, etc. to serve their customers in a better way.
FCC said that there will be no reduction in broadband investments.
AT&T was fast enough to respond to FCC guidelines. AT&T warned that FCC’s net neutrality guidelines could impact investment in broadband.
AT&T Senior Executive Vice President-External and Legislative Affairs Jim Cicconi said: “The order released today begins a period of uncertainty that will damage broadband investment in the United States. We are confident the issue will be resolved by bipartisan action by Congress or a future FCC, or by the courts.”
Internet Innovation Alliance (IIA) said: “Market uncertainty accelerates today with the release of the FCC’s decision to impose public utility regulation on the Internet. Long drawn out legal challenges to the agency’s embrace of Title II regulation without clear statutory authority now await the Internet ecosystem.”
The FCC statement said that the Commission may enforce the open Internet rules via investigation and the processing of complaints — both formal and informal.
In addition, the commission may provide guidance through the use of enforcement advisories and advisory opinions, and it will appoint an ombudsperson.
“In order to provide the Commission with additional understanding, particularly of technical issues, the Order delegates to the Enforcement Bureau the authority to request a written opinion from an outside technical organization or otherwise to obtain objective advice from industry standard-setting bodies or similar organizations,” FCC said.
FCC says investment will continue despite the latest guidelines.
“Recent events have demonstrated that our rules will not disrupt capital markets or investment. Following recent discussions of the potential application of Title II to consumer broadband, investment analysts have issued reports concluding that Title II with appropriate forbearance is unlikely to alter broadband provider conduct or have any negative effect on their value or future profitability,” said FCC.
Executives from broadband providers have repeatedly represented to investors that the prospect of regulatory action will not influence their investment strategies or long-term profitability.
Sprint said it does not believe that a light touch application of Title II, including appropriate forbearance, would harm the continued investment in, and deployment of, mobile broadband services.
FCC cited the AWS auction, conducted under the prospect of Title II regulation, which generated bids more than $41 billion as the case to support its view points on net neutrality.
Baburajan K
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