14 DAY TRIAL // The FCC is kicking off its efforts to roll back net neutrality protections set down by the previous chairman during the Obama administration.
This doesn't exactly come as a surprise considering Ajit Pai, the new FCC leader and former member of the commission, has long expressed his opposition towards net neutrality. What is disappointing, however, is that even after meeting with the top tech companies in the United States, having received numerous letters from startups and professionals, he still moves on to kill net neutrality, completely disregarding everything he's been told.
Despite acknowledging the importance of an open internet, Pai has said the FCC is on the way to scrap the net neutrality protections set down during the Obama administration.
Pai expressed a need for the complete revision of the existing federal rules that seek to prevent telco giants from throttling Internet speeds, to put a dam on the speeds users have when checking out services offered by competitors.
"Nothing about the Internet was broken in 2015. Nothing about the law had changed. And there wasn't a rash of Internet service providers blocking customers from accessing the content, applications or services of their choice," Pai said.
An alternative fact...
While it is true that there weren't many cases reported, that doesn't mean they weren't there. It was proven back then that Netflix access was throttled by Comcast, with connection speeds slowing to such an extent that many customers decided to cancel their accounts.
Undoubtedly, the telecom industry is rejoicing because this isn't the first beneficial change for them that has come since the new administration has taken the reins. Just a few weeks ago, the government decided to put a stop to a set of changes that were supposed to come into effect that would have seen telecom companies requiring the express consent of their customers before selling off their data to marketers.
The full text of the proposal is set to be published soon.