Lucia Leal
Washington, November 10 (EFE) .- The US president, Barack Obama, decided today to regulate the Internet as a public service and prohibit the creation of priority and faster channel position held by activists and criticized by providers, convinced that such a move hurts innovation.
Obama was in favor of stronger rules that defend the “net neutrality” in a message to the Federal Commission Communications (FCC), an independent body which provides soon make a decision on how to regulate internet access.
The principle of “net neutrality” holds that should not be allowed internet providers reduce or block access to certain websites, nor design a “fast channel” that allows faster access content whose creators have previously paid a fee to the provider company.
Obama said that the final decision will correspond only to the FCC, with Democratic commissioners and Republicans, not the White House, but said that the Internet should be designed and regulated as a basic public service, “essential to the economy” in the US and a “significant influence democratization. “
” We can not allow Internet service providers to restrict access to the best and pick winners and losers in the market for online services and ideas, “Obama said in a statement.
That’s the idea shared by many activists and large Internet companies like Amazon, eBay, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Netflix, Twitter and Yahoo.
The group asks the FCC to classify Internet as a public utility service under the Communications Act of 1934, which would ensure that it can be regulated in the same way that electricity, for example, and would give the commission more authority in banning practices such as imposing “tolls”.
Obama claimed that the FCC decision respected four pillars, including prohibiting providers from blocking content, prevent “some content intentionally slow or accelerate other” and increase transparency regarding all connection points between ISPs.
The last pillar involves prohibit the creation of fast channels, since, according to Obama, “no service should get stuck on a ‘slow channel’ because it does not pay rate. “
” That performance as guardians (one channel or another) would undermine the level playing competition that is essential for the growth of the Internet. So you ask an explicit prohibition of prioritization (content) with payment, “he said.
Obama’s position was immediately rejected by the two major Internet providers in the US, Comcast and Verizon, plus of a major lobby in that industry, CTIA;. and President of the House, Republican John Boehner
“The net neutrality is a clear example of the type of regulation from Washington destroying innovation and entrepreneurship. Federal bureaucrats should not be in the business of regulating the Internet, now or ever, “Boehner said.
Verizon also warned that imposing regulation Act, 1934 Internet” threaten competition and innovation ” network and generate claims that “probably” lead to its invalidation in the courts.
In addition, the company continued in a statement, that measure is “free” because “the FCC already has sufficient authority “now to adopt rules against creating fast channels.
Similarly, Comcast said the White House-backed policy” would jeopardize the engine for job creation and investment and the cycle innovation that has generated internet. “
In May, the FCC issued a proposal that approached the possibility that providers charged for priority access to the network, and since then has received over 4 million public comment on the matter.
The FCC chairman, Tom Wheeler, said in a statement that he also opposes the creation of fast channels, but said the idea of classifying the Internet as a utility raises complicated legal questions.
“We must take the time to do things right,” Wheeler, who initially promised a final decision this year but, according to media reports, said now arises delay the verdict of the FCC until 2015.
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