Obama backs Net neutrality in statement

President Barack Obama weighed in Monday on new Net neutrality regulations being drafted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), saying the agency should reclassify broadband to regulate it more like a public utility.

The FCC has received nearly 4 million comments after Chairman Tom Wheeler proposed new rules that prohibited Internet service providers (ISPs) from blocking any content, but allowed deals where content providers would pay the telecommunication companies to, as they put it, ensure smooth delivery of traffic.

Obama's proposal contradicts that plan, echoing calls from open Internet advocates and some of the tech companies that rely on equal access to bandwidth to do business. The statement also made clear that the president doesn't have the power to make the FCC's rules, but that his office strongly recommended the regulation. 

But ISPs Comcast and Verizon have already reportedly already cut deals charging companies like bandwidth-hungry Netflix for access to their data-transmission systems, the Wall Street Journal reports. The popular video streaming site accounts for about a third of U.S. Internet traffic at peak times.  

Obama, who campaigned on the issue of Net neutrality, said the FCC's new rules should explicitly ban such paid prioritization deals and sided with consumer advocates who have pushed for the FCC to reclassify ISPs so that they can be regulated more like a public utility.

"Simply put: No service should be stuck in a 'slow lane' because it does not pay a fee. That kind of gatekeeping would undermine the level playing field essential to the Internet’s growth," Obama said in a statement.

"I believe the FCC should create a new set of rules protecting Net neutrality and ensuring that neither the cable company nor the phone company will be able to act as a gatekeeper, restricting what you can do or see online."

He also said the FCC should apply its new rules equally to mobile and wired ISPs, with a recognition of special challenges that come with managing wireless networks.

Obama appointed Wheeler, a former telecom industry lobbyist, to the role of FCC chairman in 2013. Wheeler served as president and CEO of the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association, according to a biography on the FCC's website. 

Wheeler, in a statement, called the president's words "an important and welcome addition" to the record. The FCC chief said the he and Obama "both oppose Internet fast lanes," and that the Internet "must not advantage some to the detriment of others."

But Wheeler also stressed that the FCC was an independent regulatory agency, so the president's remarks would just be come part of the record of the Open Internet proceeding.

As for the suggestion that the Internet should be regulated more like a utility, Wheeler said the FCC welcomed Obama's comment on how a new rule can "Use Title II of the Communications Act."

Title II of the Communications Act of 1934 details a long list of requirements for "common carriers" to ensure they act "in the public interest." Wheeler has said in the past that he would consider Title II, but reiterated in Monday's statement that the much less stringent Section 706 of the 1996 Telecommunications Act is the law he believes has jurisdiction over the Internet.

A decision on the FCC's Internet regulations was initially expected at the end of this year, but it's now likely to be delayed until 2015.

Al Jazeera and Reuters