{"id":5287,"date":"2016-06-24T17:29:52","date_gmt":"2016-06-24T17:29:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=5287"},"modified":"2016-06-24T17:29:52","modified_gmt":"2016-06-24T17:29:52","slug":"federal-court-backs-fccs-treatment-of-internet-as-utility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=5287","title":{"rendered":"Federal Court Backs FCC\u2019s Treatment of Internet as Utility"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>

A win in federal court for consumers, say advocates of net neutrality. Photo: Greg Stotelmyer<\/p><\/div>\n

by Greg Stotelmyer<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

WHITESBURG, KY<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 A federal court has upheld the Federal Communication Commission\u2019s decision to treat the Internet like a utility \u2013 a victory for consumers say advocates of net neutrality.<\/p>\n

The 2-to-1 ruling came Tuesday from the U.S. Court of Appeals for Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

Marty Newell, a member of the Rural Broadband Policy Group, says the court ruling is \u201cpart of the march\u201d to treating broadband the same way we treat telephone service.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not optional,\u201d he stresses. \u201cIt\u2019s not a luxury. There was a time when Internet access might have been considered a luxury, but it\u2019s not now. That time has passed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a necessity in the same way that we looked at the telephone once upon a time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The cable and telecom industries and their allies argue that the FCC\u2019s rule is overreaching and would stifle investment and customer choice.<\/p>\n

But Newell and other advocates say web users need more protections from providers.<\/p>\n

Newell says the ruling is especially important in rural areas of the country that are underserved by broadband.<\/p>\n

Take Kentucky for example, where Newell says around one out of every four households does not have access to broadband services.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have as much choice,\u201d he points out. \u201cThe competition is not nearly as great.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is critical that this communications tool that it is absolutely essential to do business in the 21st century, that it be an open system.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Rural Broadband Policy Group says of the 19 million Americans who don\u2019t have broadband, more than 14 million live in rural parts of the country.<\/p>\n

Noting a lot of money is at stake, Newell says he knows the legal challenges will continue, something the industry giants have promised.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Greg Stotelmyer WHITESBURG, KY\u00a0\u2013 A federal court has upheld the Federal Communication Commission\u2019s decision to treat the Internet like a utility \u2013 a victory for consumers say advocates of net neutrality. The 2-to-1 ruling came Tuesday from the U.S. Court of Appeals for Washington, D.C. Marty Newell, a member of the Rural Broadband Policy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5269,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5287"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5288,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5287\/revisions\/5288"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}