The concept of net neutrality for Internet service providers got one step closer to becoming the law of the land this week. According to a post on The Hill web site the Federal Communications Commission has now delivered its proposed rules that will govern how ISP can handle traffic. The rules were turned into the Office of Management and Budget the past Thursday. The move now starts a period of time where the public can send their comments on the net neutrality rules for the next 30 days.
Once that period of comment is over the Office of Management and Budget will then decide to approve or disapprove the FCC's rule. If the rules are indeed approved, they will go into effect 60 days after they are published in the Federal Register. That's the daily official publication of the US federal government.
In its basic terms, the FCC's net neutrality rules will forbid ISP from slowing down or blocking net traffic to competing companies. The laws were passed in a heavily partisan vote by the FCC with the three Democratic members voting yes while the two Republicans voting no. Republicans feel that the rules amount to unnecessary regulation of ISP while supporters believe that ISPs would be able to control access to the Internet if such rules were not in place.
Verizon had already sued to block the net neutrality rules. However a judge dismissed the case because the rules had not yet been published in the National Register. It's expected that Verizon, along with other ISPs, will attempt to launch a court action against the rules when that happens.
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