The Federal Communications Commission is looking at a new net neutrality plan that would assign common carrier status to broadband providers in some circumstances, according to The Wall Street Journal. The report says that FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is considering a plan that would separate broadband into two categories: retail service and back-end service.
Retail service means the transactions between network operators and their customers, while back-end services means the transactions between operators and content providers. The FCC may classify the back-end service as a common carrier, according to the report. But the plan under consideration would still allow content providers to pay service providers for high-speed access.
The ability to pay for high-speed access is of particular interest to content providers in the mobile space. In January, AT&T announced a plan to let companies sponsor content for its customers. Just a few days later a U.S. appeals court rejected parts of the FCC’s original net neutrality plan, opening the door for more deals with content providers.
Broadband providers do not want to be classified as common carriers because this would subject them to more regulation. Currently they are classified as information services. But net neutrality proponents worry that this classification gives broadband providers too much freedom to let economics dictate what content is delivered, how much it costs and who gets access to it.
The FCC has not publicly discussed a new plan. If it does, there is a strong possibility that the companies impacted will challenge the proposal in court. Verizon Communications and AT&T both have a lot at stake as they are major providers of high-speed Internet access over fixed as well as wireless networks.
The White House reportedly responded to news of the FCC plan with the following statement: “The president has made it abundantly clear that any outcome must protect net neutrality and ban paid prioritization — and has called for all necessary steps to safeguard an open Internet.”
