Comcast and other ISPs celebrate imminent death of net neutrality rules

Enlarge (credit: Comcast)

The nation's biggest home Internet and mobile broadband providers say they're big fans of net neutrality-but they're also really glad that the Federal Communications Commission is preparing to dismantle its net neutrality rules.

"We continue to strongly support a free and open Internet and the preservation of modern, strong, and legally enforceable net neutrality protections," Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said in a statement today. "We don't block, throttle, or discriminate against lawful content delivered over the Internet, and we are committed to continuing to manage our business and network with the goal of providing the best possible consumer experience."

Comcast's blocking of BitTorrent traffic in 2007 helped start a decade-long debate over how the FCC should enforce net neutrality. Net neutrality rules were issued by the FCC in 2010, but they were struck down by a federal appeals court in 2014 after a lawsuit was filed by Verizon. The court said that the FCC could not enforce its net neutrality rules against blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization without reclassifying ISPs as common carriers under Title II of the Communications Act.

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