A divided Federal Communications Commission approved a measure to begin regulating Internet service providers’ activities, creating a general set of rules designed to promote equal access and openness to the Internet, a concept known as Net neutrality.
But the issue doesn’t end with Tuesday’s 3-2 vote down political party lines, as the new policy is sure to face court challenges—and that has lender and technology executives concerned about the policy’s impact on mortgage operations and future innovation from developers of Web-based technology.
The new rules mandate transparency in how ISPs manage their networks and also set a policy of nondiscrimination on the Web, ensuring that all applications and technologies can move data across public Internet lines. But it also gives ISPs the authority to conduct “reasonable” network management, paving the way for tiered pricing models—a doubled-edged sword for businesses and consumers.
On one hand, for users that access the Internet for activities that don’t require high-speed connections—like e-mail or instant messaging—lower-cost access may become an option. But for businesses that needed high-speed access to process mortgage documents and other activities, as well as consumers that use the Web to stream media like music and video, the cost for high-speed access could increase.
“It would be like creating toll roads on the Internet,” said Jorge Sauri in a recent interview before the FCC vote. Sauri is the founder and chief technology officer of Austin, Texas-based MortgageDashboard, a Web-based loan origination system provider.
“The only way that you’re going to get technological advancement and bring about new technologies is with unfettered Internet access.”
In Congress, lawmakers are taking sides on the divisive policy, including Democratic Sen. Al Franken, who in a Dec. 18 speech on the Senate floor said the impact of the policy goes beyond how consumers are entertained or businesses operate.
“If corporations are allowed to prioritize content on the Internet, or they are allowed to block applications you access on your iPhone, there is nothing to prevent those same corporations from censoring political speech,” he said.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, who proposed the plan earlier this month, called it a compromise between ISP and consumer advocacy stakeholders, but faced opposition from the commission’s two Republican members, who said the efforts were an attempt at regulating a problem that did not exist and questioned the panel’s authority to act on the matter.
Even his fellow Democrats were critical of the measure, claiming it does not go far enough to promote Net neutrality—the idea that all users should have equal access to the Internet and all data should be allowed to indiscriminately transfer across networks.
