Is the FCC Chairman getting ready to take a case-by-case approach to net neutrality?

[steve2470]

http://venturebeat.com/2014/02/11/is-the-fcc-chairman-getting-ready-to-take-a-case-by-case-approach-to-net-neutrality/

FCC chairman Tom Wheeler said Monday that he will announce the agency’s proposed plan for an open Internet “in the coming days” – but the plan may disappoint net neutrality advocates.

First, some background. When a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. ruled last month that the FCC does not have the authority to require that Internet service providers treat all traffic equally, it also gave the agency a clear way to obtain that authority, saying the FCC could regulate these providers if it changes how it has chosen to categorize them.

Under the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the FCC can decide if ISPs are “telecommunications services,” which transmit information and treat all information equally, or “information services,” which process information. Telecommunications services, like wired phone networks, are regulated to be open, common carriers, whereas information processors are left unregulated to promote innovation.

*snip*

Many net neutrality advocates are hoping the FCC will simply correct its previous classification. But that’s not what Wheeler has been signaling in recent weeks.