FCC Backs "Pay to Play" Internet Access

FCC chairman Tom Wheeler
(Image: newyorker.com)

Later this week, the FCC will propose new Internet access regulations which will effectively cost consumers a lot of money. As siliconvalley.com's Levi Sumagaysay noted, the new "pay-to-play" Internet will open high-speed access to the top bids and more or less compel the likes of Netflix to pay for preferential treatment. The new FCC chairman, Tom Wheeler, certainly understands the issues underlying the proposals. After all, he was a former cable TV lobbyist. As it happens, firms such as Comcast and Verizon stand to make a bonanza from the new regulations' impact.

In fairness, the FCC was pushed into a corner via recent judicial decisions that effectively punctured Net neutrality as a legal concept. What's striking is the unwillingness of Congress, or any power structure, to maintain an Internet that retains a sense of individual freedom and a sense of unpredictability. Well, it was nice while it lasted, eh?