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FCC chief scheduled for marathon week of testimony on Internet rules

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big-brother-is-watching-you-1984-poster

FCC chief scheduled for marathon week of testimony on Internet rules

By Mario Trujillo – 02/27/15 03:53 PM EST

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler’s March schedule is filling up fast.

Wheeler has agreed to cap off a marathon week of hearings next month with testimony in front of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Communications and Technology on March 19.

The hearing, announced by panel Chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.), will be his third of the week. He will also testify at the Senate Commerce Committee and the House Oversight Committee.

There is still another request for testimony outstanding from the House Judiciary Committee.

Congressional Republicans have pounced on Wheeler after the FCC recently approved regulations that would reclassify broadband Internet under regulations governing traditional telephones, in order to enforce strong net neutrality rules.

The increased authority, approved by a 3-2 vote on Thursday, is meant to enforce rules to ensure Internet Service Providers do not prioritize any packet of Internet traffic above another.

Committees in the House and Senate have launched investigations probing whether the White House had an undue influence on the rule-making. Republicans have accused Wheeler of bending to White House pressure, because the regulations track closely with recommendations President Obama made to the commission in November.

Republicans are also considering a series of congressional actions to undo the regulations.

Leaders on the House and Senate Commerce committees are pushing a bill to enact many of the net neutrality principles advocates have supported, while also restricting some FCC authority. Another group of Republicans are advocating a more partisan effort to block the regulations through a “fast track” process under the Congressional Review Act.

https://thehill.com/policy/technology/234168-wheeler-scheduled-for-marathon-week-of-testimony-on-internet-rules

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Internet rules stir passionate debate

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Internet rules stir passionate debate

The Federal Communications Commission is being bombarded with passionate calls for a wholesale change to the way the Internet is regulated.

While reclassifying Internet providers to treat them like phone companies would be an uphill political battle, companies, lawmakers and members of the public are pressing the agency to do it anyway.

The FCC has received more than 1 million comments about its proposed rewrite of net neutrality rules. Amid profanity-filled diatribes and threats against FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, many of the comments ask the agency to change the way it regulates Internet providers.

Under the agency’s old net neutrality rules, Internet providers were regulated as “Title I” or “information” services.

Phone companies, in contrast, are classified as “Title II” or “telecommunications” services, meaning they are regulated more like utility companies.

While Wheeler initially focused on rewriting the net neutrality rules under Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act, he began focusing more seriously on reclassification after a backlash from Democrats on the Commission and on Capitol Hill.

The pressure from lawmakers and industry players — including Internet companies such as Netflix and Mozilla — has intensified since May, when the FCC voted to move ahead with Wheeler’s plan to rewrite the net neutrality rules, which

Read more: https://thehill.com/policy/technology/212748-fcc-bombarded-with-calls-for-tougher-internet-rules#ixzz385Z4xJEP