Net Neutrality News: Senator Ron Johnson Says Internet Needs Paid Fast Lanes
Senator Ron Johnson, R-WI, said net neutrality is just “a slogan” this week and suggested the internet could be better served by having paid fast lanes for certain types of data.
Appearing on WTMJ Radio in Milwaukee with Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai, Senator Johnson backed the chairman’s proposal to roll back the rules of the Obama administration designed to protect net neutrality.
Read: The FCC Announced Its Plan For Rolling Back Net Neutrality Rules And Is Accepting Public Comments
During the appearance, Chairman Pai said net neutrality—which is the premise that all data should be treated as equal—is a “great slogan” but involves government regulation of the internet. “Do you want the government deciding how the Internet is run?" the Chairman asked.
Under Chairman Pai’s current proposal, the internet would be reclassified as an information service—an undoing of the classification as a public utility under Title II of the Communications Act that was put in place in 2015.
Pai has also suggested the so-called Bright Light rules of net neutrality could also be reexamined. The Bright Line rules represent the three basic concepts of net neutrality, which holds that ISPs cannot block any content, slow or throttle data speeds, or offer paid prioritization that provides an advantage to services willing to pay.
Senator Johnson echoed Chairman’s Pai’s sentiments on the same program, while also taking aim at one of those Bright Line rules in the process.
"As chairman Pai said, net neutrality is a slogan," Johnson said. "What you really want is an expansion of high-speed broadband, and in order to do that you have to create the incentives for those smaller ISPs to invest. They don’t really control their own fiber if the government tells them exactly how they’re going to use their investment."
Read: Is Net Neutrality Dead? What The Internet Will Look Like Without Open Internet Rules, Title II
Johnson also posited that ISPs should be able to create and sell access to internet fast lanes that allow for quicker access to information. As an example, the senator pointed to medical diagnostics as a type of data that may require prioritization.
“You might need a fast lane within that pipeline so those diagnoses can be transmitted instantaneously and not be held up by, I don't know, maybe a movie streaming," Johnson said.
It is not the first time the senator has made such an argument. Johnson has previously argued that net neutrality bars ISPs from being able to monetize their infrastructure and suggested that people “streaming illegal content or pornography” benefit from net neutrality while doctors who want to prioritize medical diagnostics are disadvantaged by having to share the “same pipeline.”
Even under the current net neutrality rules, there is already a mechanism in place that allows medical services to be handled in an isolated capacity in order to ensure information is transferred quickly and reliably without having to pay extra.
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