FCC chief cites wireless industry as precedent in network neutrality proposal

The first Internet browser had just been launched, people were experimenting with a new form of letter-writing called e-mail and the cellular telephone was evolving from a bulky luxury to a mass-market convenience. The communications landscape was shifting rapidly in 1993 when Congress made a little-noticed change that classified mobile voice calling as a utility yet freed it from onerous utility regulation -- part of an initiative to spur competition in the young wireless industry.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler now cites that move as a key precedent for the controversial net neutrality proposal that the agency is expected to approve Feb 26. His plan would impose federal oversight of online traffic to ensure that Internet providers don't give preference to video and other content from some websites over others. But he promised that the FCC wouldn't use the new authority to regulate rates or take other steps that would hinder investment in expanding fiber and wireless networks. Instead, the FCC would use the same light-touch approach that came after the 1993 legislation and that "went hand-in-hand with massive investment" in wireless networks, said Chairman Wheeler, who was a top industry lobbyist at the time.