Saturday, July 2, 2011

FCC takes steps toward implementing ‘Net Neutrality’ rules

Friday, July 1, 2011 · 10:10 am · 32 Comments

“Remember those net neutrality rules the U.S. Federal Communications Commission passed back in December? The agency is taking steps toward finally implementing them, although the rules still won’t go into effect for months,” Grant Gross reports for IDG News Service.

“The FCC on Thursday took a procedural step toward publishing the controversial rules in the Federal Register, the official U.S. government publication for agency rules. The FCC, said a spokesman, planned to send a Paperwork Reduction Act notice to the Federal Register and the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on Thursday, one of the final steps before the rules are published,” Gross reports. “Next week, the Federal Register is likely to publish the FCC’s estimates on the paperwork burden the net neutrality rules would create, the spokesman said. After a 30-day public comment period on the paperwork estimate, the OMB will have to approve the proposed rules.”

Gross reports, “After the OMB approves the rules, they will be published in the Federal Register. Sixty days after publication, they go into effect, meaning it could be nearly a year between the FCC’s vote to approve and the implementation of the rules… Some FCC critics have questioned why the agency has not yet published the rules in the Federal Register. Back in April, Representative Greg Walden, an Oregon Republican, questioned if the agency was delaying publication in order to derail an effort by House of Representatives Republicans to repeal the rules.

Read more in the full article here.

“Republican FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell says he thinks that there is a ‘better than average chance’ that a court, likely the D.C. circuit, will stay the FCC’s network neutrality rules,” John Eggerton reports for Broadcasting & Cable. “That came in an appearance June 29 on Fox News’ online program Power Play with Chris Stirewalt.”

“House Republicans this week renewed their attempt to roll back the regs via an amendment to the 2012 appropriations bill defunding FCC implementation, a gambit they tried with the stop-gap spending bill last spring without success,” Eggerton reports. “The House also passed a resolution to invalidate the rules but that, too, was not getting any traction in the Democratically-controlled Senate. McDowell cited the appropriations move, but pointed out that was tough given the Senate makeup.”

Eggerton reports, “That led up to his observation that it would more likely be overturned in court once the ‘gumming-up’ by OMB over paperwork was through and the rules could be noticed and challenged.”

Read more in the full article here.

Related articles:
Al Franken: Big corporations are ‘hoping to destroy’ the Internet – March 16, 2011
Speaker Boehner rips FCC bid to regulate Internet; likens ‘shocking’ national debt to Sputnik threat – February 28, 2011
House passes amendment to block funds for FCC ‘Net Neutrality’ order – February 17, 2011
Rasmussen: Just 21% of likely U.S. voters want FCC to regulate Internet – December 28, 2010
FCC cites Android ‘openness’ as reason for neutered ‘Net Neutrality’ – December 22, 2010
U.S. FCC approves so-called ‘net-neutrality’ regulations – December 21, 2010
Tim Lee on ‘network neutrality’: Libertarian computer geeks should forge a third way – December 16, 2010
Google and Verizon propose ‘Net Neutrality’ rules, but exempt wireless’ – August 9, 2010
Big win for Comcast as US court rules against FCC on authority to impose ‘Net Neutrality’ – April 6, 2010


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