Internet Gets New Rules of the Road

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Wall Street Journal:

The FCC's rules could be less important to day-to-day Web surfing now than they will be to shaping how Americans access and use the Internet years from now. In the future, the Internet industry will be increasingly centered around online video, gaming and mobile services, analysts say.

Those are the fastest growing categories of Internet traffic, which broadband network hardware provider Cisco Systems Inc. recently forecast could quadruple by 2014.

Recently, Mr. Genachowski suggested that instead of selectively slowing certain traffic to clear network congestion, broadband providers could consider charging consumers on a pay-as-you go basis. That would mark a departure from the flat monthly fees most consumers pay now for unlimited Web access.

Carriers say privately they are concerned that one of the only alternatives left to make a profit off the Internet and pay for network infrastructure is to charge consumers for the amount of data they consume.

The rules would allow phone and cable companies to sell faster priority delivery services for extra money, particularly on wireless networks. That means a video streaming company like Google Inc. could pay a wireless company extra for guaranteed delivery of its YouTube videos to consumers' smart phones.

But FCC officials said any such priority service would have to be disclosed to regulators, and the rules warn that such "pay for priority" plans , if used on landline networks, would be "unlikely" to satisfy the FCC's new standards, which could prompt legal challenges.
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The FCC, still trying to play catch up-and making the rest of us pay?

[Sabre86]

This abomination will not stand up to a Court challenge (already ruled illegal once before), and Congress, by a simple majority, will likely overturn the FCC's power grab.