The FCC’s Net Neutrality Order Protects Internet Freedom by Restoring the Law

[Commentary] “So, are there any surprises?” That’s the No. 1 question we’ve been asked since the Federal Communications Commission released the text of its order reclassifying broadband access as a common-carrier service under Title II of the Communications Act --  the step needed to provide real Network Neutrality protections for Internet users. And after a close read, the answer is no.

We cover the highlights of the few pages of new rules the FCC issued, as well as the order text supporting those rules. That text -- the legal analysis, the history of the issue, the chronology of the decision-making process, and the procedures the agency followed along the way -- comprises the vast majority of the 400-page order. The rules themselves are a little less than eight pages long. There are no “surprises” in these rules or in the order because the FCC did what it said it would do, both in the Feb. 4 fact sheet it released leading up to the Feb. 26 vote, and then in the detailed answers and explanations Chairman Wheeler and FCC staff offered at the open meeting on the 26th. And the most important thing the FCC did is the easiest to explain. Above all else, the FCC restored the rule of law. It returned to the will of Congress as written into the Act, and as updated on an overwhelmingly bipartisan basis in 1996. To keep access networks open, the FCC began treating broadband as an essential communications service again. But it did that without bringing Internet content under the agency’s jurisdiction.