Michael Copps, former FCC commissioner, on net neutrality

The public has blistered the Federal Communications Commission with a record 780,000 responses to its proposal that Internet service providers no longer be required to treat all online traffic equally.

But does the onslaught -- more than the agency has received for any proposed rule change -- even matter to the five commissioners who are expected to consider it in late 2014?

"I can tell you that I didn't go read all 3 million of those messages, but I knew they were there," former Commissioner Michael Copps said, referring to a similar deluge that were sent to the FCC, Congress and elsewhere in Washington when the commission considered loosening media ownership rules a decade ago. "But did they make an impact? You bet they made an impact. There was no question about it."

Copps, who served on the commission from 2001 to 2011, has long been a fierce advocate for preserving net neutrality and an opponent of further media consolidation.