Montana Becomes First State to Require ISPs to Abide by Net Neutrality Principles Despite FCC Repeal

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Montana Becomes First State to Require ISPs to Abide by Net Neutrality Principles Despite FCC Repeal

By CircleID Reporter
January 22, 2018, 10:00 pm PST Views: 10,318 Comments: 1

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Montana Governor Steve Bullock signs an executive order requiring ISPs with state contracts to adhere to internet neutrality principles. “There has been a lot of talk around the country about how to respond to the recent decision by Federal Communications Commission to repeal net neutrality rules, which keep the internet free and open. It’s time to actually do something about it,” said Governor Bullock. “This is a simple step states can take to preserve and protect net neutrality. We can’t wait for folks in Washington DC to come to their senses and reinstate these rules.” The Montana order prohibits service providers from blocking lawful content, throttle, impair or degrade lawful internet traffic on the basis of internet content, engage in paid prioritization, or unreasonably interfere or disadvantage the users’ ability to select, access, and use broadband internet access service.

Update Jan 24, 2018: New York joins Montana to become the second state requiring ISPs to follow Net Neutrality principles – New York Governor Andrew Cuomo today signed an executive order directing State’s government not to enter into any contracts for internet service unless the ISPs agree to follow net neutrality principles.

By CircleID Reporter — CircleID’s internal staff reporting on news tips and developing stories. Do you have information the professional Internet community should be aware of? Contact us.
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Montana order is pure political hype Anthony Rutkowski – Jan 23, 2018 5:43 PM

No State has the authority to institute such an order as it applies to service to the public. The actual order is nothing more than terms of service for the State’s purchase of its own services.

Any large enterprise customer can seek similar terms of service from a provider, although it’s not clear what the actual benefit is to the employees of State of Montana using the access. The entire point of the FCC’s reversal order was to eliminate designating the providers as common carriers.

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