FCC to Reinstate Net Neutrality

Net neutrality might not be dead after all. The FCC says it will apply a brand new regulatory structure on Internet providers that will allow it to skirt a recent court ruling that found it didn't have the power to force Comcast to treat all Internet traffic equally. Advocates had been pushing the commission to classify broadband Internet the same way it classified phone networks, giving them a host of old regulatory powers, but the commission has settled on a lighter “third way.”

The new structure will “restore the status quo,” said Chairman Julius Genachowski in a statement. The narrow new classification will allow the commission to apply old rules about network transmissions, but not to regulate web content. Basically, it'll just have the powers everyone thought it had before the Comcast ruling, CNET explains. “In short, the proposed approach is already tried and true,” says Genachowski. Comcast said it was “disappointed,” but said it appreciates “the Chairman's desire to take extremes off the table.” (More FCC stories.)