Net Neutrality will be disappearing in the United Sates if FCC decides to reclassify the broadband services as telecommunications and subject to common carriers obligations (Title II 1996 Communication Act). It may be considered as a correction of the mistake incurred in 2002 when it was qualified as information services under the excuse of promoting competition and investments.

Net Neutrality will be disappearing in the United Sates if FCC decides to reclassify the broadband services as telecommunications and subject to common carriers obligations (Title II 1996 Communication Act). It may be considered as a correction of the mistake incurred in 2002 when it was qualified as information services under the excuse of promoting competition and investments.  


If FCC decides to give the ISPs the new status of telecommunication providers, the scope of the obligations and commitments to be imposed to them shall far more stricter than those from net neutrality.

Common carrier statutory obligations are imposed for being seen this activity as an utility. The features and characters of these common carriers activities originated in the common law system are quite similar to the "servicios públicos" created by French administrative law and adopted by almost all Latin America.

From my first readings in net neutrality I recall the European first criteria about net neutrality considering that was a discussion belonging only to American context and not replicable in other countries.

Due to the internationality of the Internet that theory went wrong and net neutrality was more venerated outside the United States than in its country of origin. After the Verizon defeat, net neutrality supporters should consider that the causes of this lost shall be entirely associated with the particular regulatory situation in the Unites States but not replicated in other jurisdictions.

Under this new scenario the ISPs, still information services, should be authorized to be more aggressive in its commercial policies. In the meantime the FCC shall decide to treat ISPs as telecommunication providers, as occurs in almost all Latin America, and duly applied the easy common carrier mandate of treating all customers equally.

Another option for the FCC is to employ Section 706 of the Communication Act sustaining that net neutrality serves the goal of promoting investment in advanced communications.  Following this alternative FCC may be assuming a new regulatory contingency due to not duly analyze the proper legal authority to regulate broadband.

FCC lost twice in court due to vague interpretations of its legal authority to regulate broadband through net neutrality.  If Obama has a real intention of trying to keep the traditional free spirit of Internet the FCC should stop pretending it can regulate them as common carriers without first reclassifying. Through this path FCC will not incurred in the repeated regulatory mistake of 2002 without being corrected in 2010 with the Open Internet Order. 

Not much lectures observed that the wireless business, wireless, is currently not subject to discrimination obligations. Under this new perspective The mobile operators shall also adapt to this new perspective being subject to tighter controls as the traffic transmitted through wireless devices use the same backbones from wired broadband providers that may be promptly being considered under a common carrier status. 

During this week in the Unites States the net neutrality legal discussion has been mainly associated to administrative and regulatory law but without forgetting the commercial impact over significant markets that involved huge guys as Google, ATT, Facebook, Verizon, Netflix, among others.   The consequences of this analysis shall include constitutional aspects of a new human right dimension suitable to protect basic guaranties from new techno threats.  The restrictions to access certain contents or applications will be justified in authorized commercial policies but will also be employed to impair a complete exercise of political and civil rights.

At the end of the week where supposedly net neutrality was being killed, the White House attracted all the flashes giving explanation about another vital issue for Internet policy, as government surveillance activity to be performed by the United States without giving a space for a minimal discussion with other third party affected, foreigners. The rest of the world. 

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El Acuerdo de infraestructura de red celebrado entre Netflix y Comcast pese a no afectar directamente a la neutralidad de red demuestra la necesidad de extender el ámbito de aplicación de este principio.

Memo from European Commission regarding Net Neutrality and the regulatory proposal for a Connected Continent.