Internet service providers, Web-based entrepreneurs and consumer groups are sharply divided over whether and how the Federal Communications Commission should try to preserve the Net’s status as an open, neutral platform for innovation.
Now, in trying to find a middle ground, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler may be moving onto a more treacherous political and legal minefield. The maneuvering is yet another signal that Congress should craft neutrality rules specifically for broadband, rather than leaving the FCC to search for a way to do so under a law written before the first broadband lines reached consumers.
At issue is whether to treat broadband Internet service providers as “information-service providers” or “telecommunications carriers.” According to the Wall Street Journal’s Gautham Nagesh, Wheeler may try to do both.
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