Finally, Net Neutrality

[Commentary] The Federal Communications Commission and its chairman, Tom Wheeler, are doing the right thing for the public interest.

The commission’s network neutrality rules address a real problem -- that telecommunications companies have great power to interfere with how Americans use the Internet. In the past, cable companies have made it harder for customers to share files with other Internet users. And wireless companies have previously tried to block their customers from using services like Skype and FaceTime. Requiring cable and phone companies to let customers freely use a service that they’ve already purchased is not equivalent to regulating the Internet like a utility. For one thing, the FCC is not regulating the price of broadband, which is the central feature of utility regulation. Nor is the commission imposing new fees and taxes on Internet access.

Some members of Congress and even Hillary Clinton, the presumptive frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination, are talking about rewriting the nation’s telecommunications law. There are good reasons to update the law – the Internet was in its infancy during the last major change in 1996. But any amendment to that law must be carefully thought out and should not be a pretext to undo the FCC’s new rules.