WASHINGTON — The Federal Communications Commission for the first time classified Internet providers as public utilities Thursday, a landmark vote that officials said will prevent cable and telecommunications companies from controlling what people see on the Web.
The move, approved 3-2 along party lines, was part of a sweeping set of new “net neutrality” rules aimed at banning providers of high-speed Internet access such as Verizon and Time Warner Cable from blocking websites they don’t like or auctioning off faster traffic speeds to the highest bidders.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler argued that the agency needed to take a dramatic step to preserve a “fast, fair and open Internet.”
Broadband Internet providers now will face some of the same heavy regulations that the federal government imposes on telephone companies.
“The Internet has replaced the functions of the telephone,” Wheeler said during the commission vote. “The Internet is simply too important to allow broadband providers to be the ones making the rules.”
Cable and telecommunications companies, as well as GOP lawmakers, condemned the move as an overreach of government intervention into their businesses, and lawsuits are expected to follow.
They have argued that online companies whose services hog a lot of the Web traffic flowing to homes, such as the streaming videos of Netflix or YouTube, should share in the cost of expanding and maintaining the pipes that deliver Internet content to consumers.
Without their help, the cable and telecom industry might be reluctant to upgrade and expand their networks across the country.
Verizon, for one, criticized the regulations as “antiquated” and, to make its point, issued a statement on its company blog in the form of Morse code. “FCC’s ‘Throwback Thursday’ Move Imposes 1930s Rules on the Internet,” the headline read.
“Today’s decision by the FCC to encumber broadband Internet services with badly antiquated regulations is a radical step that presages a time of uncertainty for consumers, innovators, and investors,” according to a company-provided translation of the Morse code.
The rules ban Internet providers from several specific activities: They can’t block or stop Web services such as Netflix. They can’t slow down or “throttle” content from particular websites. They can’t speed up a website’s traffic, particularly in exchange for money.
The rules also apply to wireless carriers such as Verizon Wireless, Sprint and T-Mobile, which provide Internet service to tens of millions of smartphones and tablets.
Consumers should not see any immediate changes to what they see on the Internet. In some ways, Wheeler said, that was the whole point of the effort. He added that there would be no new federal taxes or fees put on Internet service providers.
The action by the FCC also fulfills a promise made by President Barack Obama stemming from his days on the campaign trail, when he announced in 2007, “I will take a back seat to no one on my commitment to network neutrality.”
The precise language of the FCC’s rules was not revealed Thursday, and it could take weeks for the regulations to be published in the Federal Register. At that point, Internet providers will have several weeks to take legal action against the regulation.
