US FCC votes to reintroduce net neutrality rules – IT Pro – News

The American telecom regulator FCC has voted to reintroduce net neutrality rules. As a result, providers in the country are no longer allowed to favor or block certain services or apps.

The FCC board voted three to two in favor of the proposal to reinstate net neutrality rules, CNN writes. Two Republican members voted against. The telecom regulator reports in a press release that these rules require providers to treat all broadband internet connections equally again. They may not favor services if they pay for them, or limit the internet speeds of other services. They are also not allowed to simply block access to certain websites.

According to the regulator, broadband internet is therefore regarded as an ‘essential service’, just like water, electricity and telephone services. “Essential services, which we rely on in every aspect of modern life, require some oversight,” said FCC Chairman Jessica Rosenworcel. The American government body does say that it will fine-tune its supervision ‘carefully’. The FCC promises, among other things, not to interfere with the rules on broadband internet rates, something that providers expressed their concerns about in advance. The rules do not come into effect overnight. The FCC must first place them in the Federal Register, after which they will go into effect 60 days later.

Net neutrality rules were initially implemented by the FCC in 2015. Under those rules, providers were not allowed to hinder content or offer ‘highways’. These would be packages where consumers could get faster connections for higher payments or to get priority for services from the provider itself. In 2017, under President Trump, a new FCC chairman took office and many net neutrality rules were rolled back. There was a lot of criticism and protests from companies. At the time, those internet companies organized a protest day, the Battle for the Net. This yielded little, although the eventual doomsday scenarios with separate internet packages or curtailed services turned out not to be so bad.

The current US president, Joe Biden, had been planning to reintroduce net neutrality rules for some time. He tried the FCC here in 2021 through a executive order to incite it, but it was not until October 2023 that Democrats gained a majority in the five-member FCC board, allowing the order to actually be implemented.