Late afternoon on February 26th, the FCC narrowly approved the motion to regulate Internet Service Providers as utilities, a motion many agree will help ensure that net neutrality is protected. Specifically, they voted to regulate it as a utility under Title II of the Telecommunications Act. This has many implications, but the most important, and immediate one for consumers is that companies will no longer be able to prioritize certain traffic, or to throttle bandwidth for certain websites and users. They will also not be able to block or throttle the speed of specific websites or categories of websites.
PCWorld.com has a pretty good article on what this means for the consumer, in case you want to get more information. But as we pointed out in our last article on the subject, this is far from over. Internet service providers, and cellular carriers will most likely sue. They will also use their robust networks of lobbyists and political action committed to try to influence members of government to be more amenable to their cause. However, keep in mind that politicians will listen to their constituents if they are loud enough.
If you want to make sure your local congress representatives are reminded of where you stand, you can find them at:
