'Net neutrality' to return under narrowly approved FCC rule, reversing Trump-era policy

The Federal Communications Commission has approved a rule which will reclassify broadband internet as a telecommunications service subject to federal oversight, reestablishing the so-called “ net neutrality” policy done away with under the Trump Administration.

In a 3–2 vote taken Thursday, the nation’s top communications regulators ruled that broadband internet is a communications tool of the same type as the service delivered by old-fashioned copper telephone lines and therefore subject to Title II of the Communications Act of 1934.

“We know that broadband is a necessity and not a luxury, we know that it is an essential service. And when a consumer has a problem with it, they should be able to reach out to the nation’s expert on communications and get the help they need. They should be able to count on a national net neutrality policy that is grounded in the law and history of the United States,” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said before the commission’s vote.

Following the vote, Jonathan Spalter, president and CEO of broadband trade group USTelecom, said the U.S. broadband industry is now at a crossroads.

“These 400-plus pages of relentless regulation are proof positive that old orthodoxies die hard – even when the cost is failing to achieve internet for all. Our nation has a stark choice: Do we move forward together and connect everyone or dial it all back? Just two and a half short years ago we stood together for universal connectivity. Title II does nothing to advance that shared objective.”

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr voted against the rule, describing it as an “unlawful power grab” on the part of the Biden Administration.

“The internet in America has thrived in the absence of 1930s command and control regulation by

the government. Indeed, bipartisan consensus emerged early on that the government should not regulate

the internet like Ma Bell’s copper line telephone monopoly,” Carr said.

Massachusetts’ junior senator, U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, held a press conference after the rule’s passage, noting the nation had gone for more than six years without any oversight of a now-vital communications tool.

“It is day 2,321 that it took for us to get to today,” Markey said. “Republicans and their industry allies will no longer be able to bask in their victory in 2017.”

The new FCC rule, as written, reinstates net neutrality rules established under then-President Barack Obama in 2015. Trump’s FCC chair, Ajit Pai, led the commission to do away with the rule in 2017.

Net neutrality, to hear Markey explain it, is not a government power grab but a consumer protection measure designed to prevent internet providers from choosing which content makes it through to customers and how fast it’s delivered. Without it, internet providers get to select which content works and which doesn’t, he said.

“This is an antitrust issue,” Markey said.

The new rule will be published in the Federal Register and take effect in 60 days.