Several major tech companies, including Amazon, LinkedIn, Facebook and
Netflix, as well as more than 100 smaller start-ups, have asked the Federal Communications Commission
to abandon its plan to let Internet providers charge the companies for faster access
to customers, Cecilia Kang and Brian Fung report for The Washington Post.
Last month the FCC "proposed rules that would allow companies to pay providers to deliver their content at faster speeds," the Post writes. "That proposal drew an outcry by high-tech start-ups and consumer groups who fear that only the richest companies will be able to afford tolls extracted by Internet service providers. They say the higher costs would trickle down to customers and that the Web sites of nonprofit groups would be harder to find." Some rural interests also fear that they would be left in the slow lane of the digital highway.
The companies wrote: “The commission intends to propose rules that would enable phone and cable Internet service providers to discriminate both technically and financially against Internet companies and to impose new tolls on them. . . . This represents a grave threat to the Internet."
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler "vowed Thursday to forge ahead," the Post writes. Wheeler needs three votes from the five-member panel for the proposal to pass. Wheeler "said he would punish any Internet service provider that unfairly discriminates against traffic in a way that harms consumers. But such guidelines are too broad and hard to enforce, critics say." (Read more)
Last month the FCC "proposed rules that would allow companies to pay providers to deliver their content at faster speeds," the Post writes. "That proposal drew an outcry by high-tech start-ups and consumer groups who fear that only the richest companies will be able to afford tolls extracted by Internet service providers. They say the higher costs would trickle down to customers and that the Web sites of nonprofit groups would be harder to find." Some rural interests also fear that they would be left in the slow lane of the digital highway.
The companies wrote: “The commission intends to propose rules that would enable phone and cable Internet service providers to discriminate both technically and financially against Internet companies and to impose new tolls on them. . . . This represents a grave threat to the Internet."
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler "vowed Thursday to forge ahead," the Post writes. Wheeler needs three votes from the five-member panel for the proposal to pass. Wheeler "said he would punish any Internet service provider that unfairly discriminates against traffic in a way that harms consumers. But such guidelines are too broad and hard to enforce, critics say." (Read more)
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