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Pingree says plan has too many loopholes, ignores emerging wireless technology

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree said today she's not satisfied with regulations proposed by the FCC that are supposed to protect neutrality on the Internet. "Net neutrality" is the concept that all traffic on the Internet should be treated equally. Without net neutrality, Internet providers can slow down access to competitors' services and websites while providing faster access to sites and applications that they have a business interest in.

"The rules the FCC is approving today look too much like they were written by giant telecom companies and don't do enough to guarantee true net neutrality," Pingree said. "There are a number of serious loopholes in the rules, but my biggest problem is that they don't adequately cover wireless networks, which are going to be the future of the Internet. This looks like a proposal designed to protect yesterday's network, not tomorrow's."

The proposed FCC rules exempt wireless networks from many of the new regulations and would allow cellular providers to discriminate against certain kinds of traffic.

"These rules would let big wireless companies like AT&T and Verizon block your favorite application and make you use one of theirs. That kind of discrimination isn't good for consumers and could discourage innovation," Pingree said.

The proposed rules also allow for "paid prioritization," which means Internet providers can give preference to websites or services that pay a fee to the provider.

"The whole point of net neutrality is treating all traffic equally but these rules will allow Internet providers to create fast lanes and slow lanes and favor their friends and business partners," Pingree said.

As President of Common Cause, Pingree was a strong advocate for net neutrality, and has called on Congress to enact tough protections that keep the Internet free and open.