The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) is planning to draft new net neutrality rules in efforts to prevent Internet service providers (ISPs) from slowing down access to some content providers like Netflix or Amazon that don’t pay a charge to reach customers.
The new rules come not too long after the US court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit struck down the previous set of rules because the agency didn’t have the authority to enforce the rules under its current classification of broadband as a largely unregulated information service,
The rules will prevent ISPs from signing special deals with content providers to reach consumers at higher speeds or quality, as well avoid blocking access to websites and discriminating against content companies.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said:"FCC must stand strongly behind its responsibility to oversee the public interest standard and ensure that the Internet remains open and fair.
"The Internet is and must remain the greatest engine of free expression, innovation, economic growth, and opportunity the world has ever known. We must preserve and promote the Internet."
FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai said: "I am skeptical that this effort will end any differently from the last."
"The Internet was free and open before the FCC adopted net neutrality rules," Pai added.
"It remains free and open today. Net neutrality has always been a solution in search of a problem."
