Today's latest update: They (the FCC) passed it 3-2. If you like government intervention in your daily activities, for your own good, you'll be happy.
http://reason.com/blog/2015/02/26/the-fcc-just-voted-to-regulate-the-inter (Includes 31-minute video interview with Ajjit Pai, FCC Commissioner who voted against the 323-page "regulation".)
The FCC Just Voted to Regulate the Internet Like a Utility
Excerpts:
In a 3-2 vote today, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to radically overhaul the way Internet service is regulated. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and the commission’s two Democratic commissioners voted to move forward with the rules. The agency’s two GOP-appointed commissioners opposed them.
Under the new rules, broadband providers, long classified by the agency as Title I information services, will now be regulated as Title II telecommunications services—essentially making them public utilities, like the phone system.
Obama’s statement, itself somewhat atypical in its attempt to publicly influence an independent regulatory agency, followed a long, secret effort inside the White House, in which administration staffers acted, as The Wall Street Journal reported, “like a parallel version of the FCC.” Wheeler had been considering less restrictive rules, but changed his course after the president’s statement.
Today’s vote will mean that Wheeler’s proposal, which has been kept secret up until now, will finally be released to the public. And it likely means that the FCC will push forward with clarifying and implementing the as-of-yet-unknown-details of Wheeler’s proposal.
As Commissioner Pai told ReasonTV, the move is a “solution that won’t work to a problem that doesn’t exist.” It is a solution, however, that is now in place, and is sure to create some problems of its own.