Background:

The term “net neutrality” was coined by Columbia Law School Profesor Timothy Wu. https://www.law.columbia.edu/faculty/timothy-wu.  The concept was then introduced by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin as a policy statement in 2008, which led to the first of many net neutrality fights – this one over the alleged throttling practices of  Comcast allegedly applied to an Internet rival,  Bit Torrent.   Eventually, the FCC adopted the first net neutrality (“Open Internet”) order in 2010.  For more on the agency’s first attempt at Net Neutrality regulation, please see https://www.slideserve.com/liam/contents-1277519-powerpoint-ppt-presentation.

Since then, our Firm has been engaged in the net neutrality saga, representing clients on compliance and navigation through the many FCC rule changes that fluctuated with each change of the U.S. Administration.  For a brief history leading up to first, the adoption of Obama-era utility regulations governing broadband providers in 2015, then second, their dismantling by the Republican FCC in 2017, please see our monograph, The Rise & Fall of Net Neutrality at https://wstelecomlaw.com/news/brochures/.

For a more detailed presentation on the 2017 Restoring Internet Freedom Order dismantling the 2015 Obama-era rules, please see our webinar presentation for Thomson Reuters.

 But History is now repeating itself.   The new Democratic controlled FCC has commenced a new proceeding intent on reinstating the 2015 Obama-era rules.  For a summary of the resurrected Open Internet rules, please see our presentation, “Net Neutrality Redux”.

The proposed draft order is scheduled to be adopted at the FCC’s open  meeting on Thursday, April 15, 2024 is available.   https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-announces-tentative-agenda-april-open-meeting-11

And stay tuned for our next webinar discussing the impact of these soon-to-be adopted Open Internet rules.   For details, please contact us at [email protected].