Mayors Strongly Back Network Neutrality

The National Conference of Mayors has approved a resolution supporting Federal Communications Commission’s network neutrality rules and calling for "comprehensive nondiscrimination" -- no paid priority -- to be a "key principle" in any FCC rulemaking creating new rules.

That came in a resolution--among 261 pages worth of them--adopted at their annual meeting in Dallas, which ended on June 23. They mayors also called on the White House and Congress to back the FCC, and the latter, if necessary, to "enshrine access to a free and open Internet and give the FCC a clear mandate."

As for paid prioritization, which has become a hot-button issue for the FCC's proposed new rules and their "commercially reasonable" standard for allowing some types of discrimination, the mayors were clearly supportive. The mayors also added their support to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler's plan to preempt state laws that impede municipal broadband, saying they were a "significant limitation" to competitive broadband.