The United States federal government needs to uphold Title II classification for broadband Internet. The loss of net neutrality is a loss for the American people.
We need Title II classification because the Trump administration’s opt-in policy not only allows companies to disregard net neutrality entirely, it also allows companies to favor their own content through data charges.
We need Title II classification because, just as telephones and radios were and are, broadband Internet has quickly become a public utility, so much so that it is becoming more and more difficult for Americans to go to school, find a job, and even pay their bills without a reliable Internet connection. Broadband Internet, perhaps more essential in 2017 than telephones and radios were in 1934 when the Communications Act was penned, is as much a public utility as telephones and needs to be regulated as such.
We need Title II classification because the FCC’s previous attempts to enforce net neutrality on other grounds have repeatedly failed. Past attempts to regulate ISPs and obtain network neutrality have been rebuffed by the courts because they were not classified as Title II common carriers. Weaker forms of regulation, as FCC chairman Ajit Pai advocates, are insufficient to create standing net neutrality regulation.
We need Title II classification because it provides for more than just net neutrality protections to consumers. Title II classification also gives the FCC authority to protect consumers against privacy violation and exploitative pricing, while also insuring transparent billing and universal affordable access. Consumers can benefit economically from Title II classification. Title II classification not only puts all sources of online content on an equal footing for transmission to end users, it also puts end-users on a more equal footing with both each other and ISPs.
Title II classification and net neutrality also gives the end-user more, equal speed online shopping opportunities and other online companies, providing a greater variety of products to consumers.
Net Neutrality 