FCC declares Title II utility status for the Internet

Net Neutrality has won as the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has voted in favor of reclassifying the Internet as a Title II public utility, preserving Net Neutrality. More than four million people wrote in to the FCC to try and persuade them to preserve Net Neutrality and even President Obama got involved. 

The 3-2 vote saw FCC Chairman, Tom Wheeler, reverse his position, having previously been in favor of allowing ISPs to offer paid prioritization of Internet traffic. The new Title II classification also protects mobile data, plugging any loop holes for companies like Verizon.

Image Source: ColorLines

With the Internet being seen as a utility in the US, Internet providers will now have to treat all packets of data with equal priority, meaning that services like Netflix can't be purposefully slowed down in order to try and make the company cough up some money for priority access.

As you can imagine, plenty of tech companies are happy with the ruling and Netflix is obviously glad that internet providers can't hold its service to ransom anymore.

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KitGuru Says: Net Neutrality was clearly important to many and in the end, the FCC made the right decision, even though there were concerns that the commission would side with the cable companies on this one.

Source: The Inquirer 

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