Ajit Pai, the head of the Federal Commission for communication (FCC), announced Tuesday that the Commission would vote for the abolition of net neutrality rules established in the age of Obama, which Internet service providers have the same rate any network traffic. Pai said that these «hard» requirements were imposed by Democrats.
«Today I shared with my colleagues a draft resolution that would have marked the rejection of this failed approach and would be back to the old consensus that would serve consumers for decades,» said Pai. «On my proposal, the Federal government will cease to micromanage the Internet.»
«Instead, the FCC can require Internet providers become fully transparent: to allow consumers to purchase a maintenance plan that would best fit them, and entrepreneurs and small businesses would be able to access technical information necessary for innovation», he said.
The Commission will vote on the proposal at its meeting on 14 December. However, given the fact that 3 of the 5 votes of the Board members belong to the Republicans, the abolition of free Internet in the United States seems more than likely.
What will mean the abolition of existing rules free Internet for Americans? In the case of approval decisions, providers of Internet services will be able to block, throttle or prioritize a specific web content if they publicly disclose that they do it. In other words, service providers can limit access to certain content, to limit video streaming, in fact, «impose» consumer «paid» content, slowing the connection to other pages, etc.
This move is a win for companies like Verizon, Comcast and AT & T, which will be exempt from restrictions on blocking content and throttling bandwidth or require web sites to buy a so-called «fast lanes» or «paid prioritization».
