Survey finds majority of voters oppose the FCC’s regulation of the Internet

By Aemon Malone December 29, 2010

According to a new Rasmussen telephone survey, just one in five American voters want the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to regulate the Internet, with a majority believing that such control would be used to advance a political agenda. Fifty-four percent of those surveyed are opposed to FCC Internet regulation and 25 percent responded that they were not sure.

Rasmussen conducted the survey shortly after the FCC decided to impose a set of rules that would govern Internet usage. The survey found that Republicans are overwhelmingly against Internet regulation, while Democrats are more evenly split on the issue. Those who use the Internet the most are the most strongly opposed to the FCC’s Internet regulation.

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In response to a question about protecting Internet users, 52 percent said the free market would do a better job with just 27 percent favoring the government.

The survey comes during a time when distrust of the government is high among voters. But lack of information may also be contributing to the overwhelming sentiment against the FCC’s net neutrality rules. Only 20 percent of those surveyed say they have been “very closely” following the news about net neutrality regulations with 35 percent saying that they have been following “somewhat closely.”

Even if most voters do want the government to adopt a hands off approach to the Internet, the survey found that the majority of Americans (55 percent) still continue to welcome the FCC’s regulation of TV and Radio.

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FCC puts a date on net neutrality’s tombstone ahead of Senate vote

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Net neutrality finally has an official expiration date. Announced Thursday morning, May 10, the Obama-era regulations that ensured an open internet are now set to end on June 11, 2018. This will mark the first date that internet service providers in the United States will be legally allowed to obstruct or alter internet traffic according to their whims, but the fight's not over yet.

"The agency failed to listen to the American public and gave short shrift to their deeply held belief that internet openness should remain the law of the land," FCC commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel told Reuters. "The FCC is on the wrong side of history, the wrong side of the law, and the wrong side of the American people."

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FCC’s net neutrality rules officially end, but 18 ISPs promise to stay honest

FCC's historic decision on Net neutrality

The Federal Register showed that the Federal Communication Commission's (FCC) net neutrality rules would come to an end on April 23, and now, that has come to pass. The killing blow entered the register on Thursday, February 22, stating that the FCC returns to the "light-touch regulatory scheme" that kept America's public-accessed internet in check since the 1990s. As promised, this ruling went into effect on Monday, April 23. That means internet service providers (ISPs) no longer fall under the government-regulated "utility" umbrella.
"The Commission restores the classification of broadband internet access service as a lightly regulated information service and reinstates the private mobile service classification of mobile broadband internet access service."
The demise of the FCC's net neutrality rules doesn't necessarily mean ISPs will go wild and start charging outrageous fees and throttle connections on a whim. They didn't do that prior to the creation of the net neutrality rules, and likely won't resort to evil plotting once the rules expire this spring. But the FCC does have a few leashes set in place to keep internet subscribers from quivering in their boots.
Called the Restoring Internet Freedom Order, the regulation forces ISPs like Comcast to publicly provide their commercial terms of service. They must also keep the public informed about their network management practices and their performance characteristics. The FCC believes this level of transparency will protect the "openness" of the internet versus imposing rules that are "costly" rather than beneficial.
Yet there is still an uncertainty about what happens next. The big fear is that, with the net neutrality rules now eliminated, ISPs will start regulating internet traffic based on content and price. For instance, an ISP could provide its own video streaming service at full speed, but force Netflix to cough up extra cash if it wants customers to experience identical streaming speeds. That rise in cost would trickle down to subscribers.
This wasn't a problem prior to the net neutrality rules, but streaming services are now more abundant, hence the fear that the services we use every day -- especially for cord cutters -- could end up costing more money now to access the same services they loved when net neutrality rules kept ISPs in check.
Hopefully, the FCC's transparency push will help customers understand the pros and cons of what an ISP could offer. Right now, just getting the prices of the several different internet tiers provided via Charter's Spectrum service feels like pulling teeth. It's little details like price hiding that has internet surfers up in arms about any lack of regulation.
Many ISPs such as Comcast, Charter, and 16 other companies have already pledged not to block or throttle internet connections outside the piracy envelope. In the case that throttling and/or blocking does occur, they will be required to report the root cause. ISPs must also answer to the Federal Trade Commission, and the Department of Justice.
Though the net neutrality rules have become defunct, customers likely won't see the aftermath for a few months. Yet with government agencies keeping a watchful eye, ISPs may stay on their best behavior.
Updated on April 24: The FCC's net neutrality rules are officially no more.

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Oregon is the latest state to jump on the net neutrality bandwagon

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Oregon is pushing to become another state enforcing its own protection against internet service providers in the wake of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) discontinuing its net neutrality rules. The state's proposal to create a local net neutrality policy passed the House on Monday, February 26 by a large margin, and now heads to the Senate.
Similar to what New York state now enforces, Oregon's plan is to block state agencies from conducting business with internet service providers (ISPs) that don't abide by net neutrality principles. Even though the FCC's rules will officially go offline in April, state governments still expect ISPs to abide by those rules and treat all content and connections equally.
The big fear with the elimination of net neutrality is that unregulated ISPs will prioritize content. For instance, an ISP could offer its own media streaming service and throttle Netflix streaming speeds. In order for Netflix to have the same flow of data, the ISP could charge Netflix additional fees which would trickle down to subscribers.
While ISPs already provide multiple speed tiers to meet the budgets of all web surfers, blocking and/or prioritizing specific apps and content could lead to dividing the internet into "performance" tiers. Many ISPs already pledge to abide by net neutrality, but so far there is no written guarantee these companies won't backtrack on their promise.
That is where the states come in. The governors in five states already have net neutrality rules in place including Hawaii, Montana, New Jersey, New York, and Vermont. Eight other states are still working on finalizing their net neutrality rules the old-fashioned way: Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Washington, and Wisconsin.
In most cases, these states aren't regulating internet connections in the home. Instead, they're making sure state-owned agencies and services aren't dealing with mischievous content-throttling ISPs. These include educational institutions, offices spread out across the state, and public internet access. Anyone jumping on the internet from these access points is guaranteed a free and open web.
The FCC's net neutrality rules officially come to a close on April 23 but ISPs won't be let loose without some sort of a leash. These companies are required to publicly provide their commercial terms of service and must keep the public informed about their network management practices along with performance characteristics. The FCC believes this is a better option than forcing "costly" rules.
But lawmakers feel that pulling business away from ISPs not honoring net neutrality may be influential but won't change their business practices. Others fear that overreaching state-owned agencies could regulate internet content on their own.
Oregon's move to force net neutrality follows Washington's recent bill landing a majority approval in the state House on February 9, which is now facing a vote in the Senate. But like all the other states enforcing their own net neutrality rules, Washington could face a legal battle. The FCC clearly stated that it will block any state-enforced ruleset that contradicts what it already has in place.