Are The FCC’s New Internet Rules Really Needed?

EL PASO, Texas – There are new rules of the road for the ‘information super highway.’

Tuesday, the Federal Communication Commission, or FCC, voted 3-2 to place regulations on internet providers.

The new rules – dubbed ‘net neutrality’ – will keep providers from either blocking their subscribers from using websites with competing services or slowing down the speed of those services.

For example, a cable company that provides the pay-per-view movie service can’t block or slow down the Netflix website.

Critics of the new rules say internet providers aren’t even doing that and have already pledged they won’t.

Time Warner provided ABC-7 with the following statement:

“While we continue to believe that Internet regulation is unnecessary and unwarranted, we are pleased that the FCC has rejected proposals to impose even more burdensome and heavy-handed common carrier regulations.”

Others who support ‘net neutrality’ say the rules passed by the FCC don’t do enough, particularly when it comes to wireless internet providers like the phone companies.

Surfing the web on her laptop at Kinley’s Coffee House Thursday afternoon, El Pasoan Sarah Neely told ABC-7 regulation is always a tough balancing act.

“You don’t want people regulating everything because you don’t know what they’re gonna do with it,” she said. “But at the same time, you can’t let things go unregulated because then it becomes chaos.”

The FCC’s ruling is expected to be challenged in court.