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After a debate that lasted more than a decade the internet will now be classified as a utility under the classification of Title II. This classification gives the FCC the power to discipline the ISP if they to try to have “fast lanes” – which gives ISPs to throttle website that they don’t like or use a lot of bandwidth like Netflix or YouTube until the company and/or customer pays extra.
The new proposal is expected to be introduced on Thursday. After the introduction, the FCC will hold a voting at a open meeting on Feb. 26th – where most of the five commissioner must approve the rules for them to take effect.
Last year in October Chairman Wheeler tried to push “fast lanes” and failed because, President Obama pushed Wheeler to support the Title II.
SHORT AND SIMPLE
Before this rule – For Example: Since NBC is owned by Comcast it could slow-down it’s competitors like Netflix, Hulu, and/or Amazon Instant Video for it’s own profit. EA could pay your ISP to throttle Steam downloads to make Orgin more appealing with faster download speeds. This wouldn’t really affect companies like Netflix because they can pay the ISPs to have their services run faster but, for smaller start-ups it would be really hard.
Now – With FCC’s Tittle II classification that it originally created for telephone companies will make internet a utility – which means (For example) NBC can’t have a fast lane or A ISP can’t throttle YouTube or Netflix and ask them to pay more to restore their speed.
