Today the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) Restoring Internet Freedom Order takes effect. If past is prologue, social media is likely to be inundated today with laments of the internet's demise. But the reality is that, like the 2015 Open Internet Order that it repealed, today's order is likely to be a non-issue for consumers. This blog post will discuss what is, and is not, likely to happen as a result of today's order and explain why, on the whole, the Restoring Internet Freedom Order is likely to benefit consumers.
The actual details of the Restoring Internet Freedom Order seem somewhat mundane. The order restores the traditional classification of broadband as an “information service” under Title I of the Communications Act, reversing the FCC's 2015 decision to classify it instead as “telecommunications service” under Title II. In layman's terms, this will restore the light-touch regulatory framework that historically governed most internet providers, instead of trying to fit broadband into a more heavily-regulated common carriage regime originally designed to discipline the old Bell telephone monopoly.
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