Calling Internet a Modern-Day Ma Bell Among FCC’s Options
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As it fights to reclaim the power to require equal treatment of Internet traffic, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission has two paths in a regulatory battle pitting phone carriers against Web companies.
The agency, responding to a federal court ruling, can seek new rules under a law authorizing it to promote high-speed connections. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler also could pull Internet service providers into rules written decades ago for monopoly telephone service -- a course rejected by his predecessor and opposed by companies including Verizon Communications Inc.