As net neutrality vote looms, Google looks to take advantage

According to The Washington Post, FCC officials said last week that the commission will vote on new proposed net neutrality rules on Feb. 26.

It appears increasingly likely that the FCC will adopt some form of broadband as a Title II service, with substantial forbearance. The Post said:

“Analysts and officials close to the agency say that momentum has been building recently for far more aggressive regulations than Wheeler had initially proposed. Advocates of strong net neutrality, including President Obama, have urged the FCC to begin regulating Internet service providers using the same law it uses to oversee telephone companies –Title II of the Communications Act.”

Some companies are already jockeying to take advantage of Title II reclassification. According to The Wall Street Journal, Google noted in a recent letter to the FCC that Title II reclassification would give Google Fiber access to regulated utility poles and existing infrastructure. Said the Journal, “Hooking up homes using poles is about a tenth of the price of digging trenches across streets and sidewalks, according to Reed Hundt, who was FCC chairman in the 1990s.”

Get ready: The FCC says it will vote on net neutrality in February (Washington Post, Jan. 2, 2015)
 
Google Strikes an Upbeat Note With FCC on Title II (Wall Street Journal, Dec. 31, 2014)