A few months ago, a U.S. federal appeals court decision eliminated many of the Federal Communication Commission's rules concerning their regulations of ISPs. Today, the FCC voted to try once again to establish net neutrality rules that would hopefully survive a court challenge.
The FCC voted 3-2 to develop the new rules, which would instruct ISPs to maintain solid net access to every web site and service, no matter what. However, it left open the option for those same providers to offer faster service to certain sites, such as the recent announcement from Comcast that it will give its customers better access to Netflix.
It's not clear yet what the minimal speed limit the FCC would want ISPs to give to their customers under this new proposal. However, in separate press announcements from AT&T, Verizon and Comcast, they all stated they would oppose any FCC proposal that would force something like the power and phone utility regulations on ISPs.
The FCC will give the public 60 days to comment on this new proposal, followed by another 57 days for responses. However, it's obvious that these new rules will generate a large amount of debate on both sides.
Source: FCC | Net Neutrality image via Shutterstock
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