Thomas Wheeler, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, has come up with
yet another proposal for net neutrality that is not about net neutrality, but a gift to big telecom. The
Wall Street Journal reported last week:
The plan now under consideration would separate broadband into two distinct services: a retail one, in which consumers would pay broadband providers for Internet access; and a back-end one, in which broadband providers serve as the conduit for websites to distribute content. The FCC would then classify the back-end service as a common carrier, giving the agency the ability to police any deals between content companies and broadband providers. […]
The proposal would leave the door open for broadband providers to offer specialized services for, say, videogamers or online video providers, which require a particularly large amount of bandwidth. The proposal would also allow the commission to explore usage-based pricing at some point, in which consumers are charged based on how much data they use and companies are able to subsidize traffic to their websites or applications. […]
While the FCC still believes there should be room for such deals, its latest plan would shift the burden to the broadband providers to prove that the arrangements would be beneficial to consumers and equally available to any company that would like to participate. FCC officials believe reclassification would put them on much stronger legal footing to block such deals when they are anticompetitive.
It's drawing fire because it once again sets up a two-tiered internet and it still allows for paid prioritization—internet service providers will be able to charge companies more for better service, and they can call it "specialized services."
President Obama has made it very clear that paid prioritization is a non-starter: "I know one of the things that people are most concerned about is paid prioritization, the notion that some folks can pay a little more money and get better service, more exclusive access to customers though the internet. That's something I am opposed to. I was opposed to it when I ran, I continue to be opposed to it now."
President Obama also said, "Tom Wheeler, knows my position. I can't ... call him up and tell him exactly what to do. But what I've been clear about, what the White House has been clear about, is that we expect whatever final rules to emerge to make sure that we're not creating two or three or four tiers of internet." Well, Mr. President. If you want your expectations on net neutrality to be fulfilled, it's time to make your opposition clear to Wheeler.
Send a message: President Obama, save the internet! Tom Wheeler has gone rogue.