Today is a day of historic proportions, as a cote took place in Washington, D.C. saw the FCC go through a vote to reclassify broadband under Title II, which in turn, will provide the regulatory body the relevant degree of authority to impose rules over broadband providers. The new rules have been specially designed to ensure that the Internet will remain free of blocking, throttling and paid prioritization.
<--more-->In other words, the vote would work in favor of ensuring that the Internet remains free of paid prioritization as opposed to those with large checkbooks who demand better speed and traffic, and at the same time, remove barriers of use for consumers for legal purposes.
A wee bit of irony in all of this – at the turn of the decade, the FCC did make an attempt to pass rules in order to keep the Internet neutral. Verizon sued the FCC then, citing that they were unable to do this, and won. Since Verizon emerged as the victor, the FCC returned to the courts, and realized that if they were to reclassify broadband under Title II, they could then enforce net neutrality rules.
Hence, the FCC did just that, and reclassified broadband so that the organization will have a whole lot more control over broadband regulation compared to what it had on the 2010 rules. One would expect that this ruling will be challenged in court by Verizon as well as the rest, so do expect more courtroom action to happen in due time.