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NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

In a public statement, Obama took a firm stand on a thorny issue: whether Internet providers can charge higher fees to place certain websites on Internet "fast lanes."

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has voiced his support for fast lanes, but the president urged Wheeler to change his mind.

Obama's approach is to look at the Internet like a utility, and to treat companies like AT&T (T, Tech30) and Comcast (CMCSA) the same as your local power company. That would forbid broadband providers from blocking legal websites or keep websites in a "slow lane" until they pay up an extra fee.

The FCC had proposed earlier this year that Amazon could pay Comcast to speed up service for its customers. Opponents fear that a smaller Amazon rival would not be able to compete.

"We cannot allow Internet service providers to restrict the best access or to pick winners and losers in the online marketplace for services and ideas," Obama said. "Companies who connect you to the world have special obligations not to exploit the monopoly they enjoy over access in and out of your home or business."

It's up to the FCC's commissioners to draft the rules. They could adopt Obama's take on the issue. But that could prove difficult. Internet providers don't want strict regulation that ties their hands, and they have successfully resisted earlier attempts to reclassify broadband as a utility in the past.

Related: Apple finally lets iPhone defectors get texts again

Also, by asking that Internet be classified as a utility, Obama is asking the FCC to take what some view as the nuclear option. It keeps the Internet open and free -- but only by adding regulation that many view as unnecessary.

Cable and telecom companies say this kind of regulation will make network upgrades slower and raise prices. Wheeler, who will ultimately decide on the new rules, is suggesting only partially looking at the Internet as a utility.

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Obama: More regulations for Internet

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

In a public statement, Obama took a firm stand on a thorny issue: whether Internet providers can charge higher fees to place certain websites on Internet "fast lanes."

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has voiced his support for fast lanes, but the president urged Wheeler to change his mind.

Obama's approach is to look at the Internet like a utility, and to treat companies like AT&T (T, Tech30) and Comcast (CMCSA) the same as your local power company. That would forbid broadband providers from blocking legal websites or keep websites in a "slow lane" until they pay up an extra fee.

The FCC had proposed earlier this year that Amazon could pay Comcast to speed up service for its customers. Opponents fear that a smaller Amazon rival would not be able to compete.

"We cannot allow Internet service providers to restrict the best access or to pick winners and losers in the online marketplace for services and ideas," Obama said. "Companies who connect you to the world have special obligations not to exploit the monopoly they enjoy over access in and out of your home or business."

It's up to the FCC's commissioners to draft the rules. They could adopt Obama's take on the issue. But that could prove difficult. Internet providers don't want strict regulation that ties their hands, and they have successfully resisted earlier attempts to reclassify broadband as a utility in the past.

Related: Apple finally lets iPhone defectors get texts again

Also, by asking that Internet be classified as a utility, Obama is asking the FCC to take what some view as the nuclear option. It keeps the Internet open and free -- but only by adding regulation that many view as unnecessary.

Cable and telecom companies say this kind of regulation will make network upgrades slower and raise prices. Wheeler, who will ultimately decide on the new rules, is suggesting only partially looking at the Internet as a utility.

See the rest here:
Obama puts foot down: No Internet fast lanes

President Obama on Monday called on federal regulators to toughen proposed net-neutrality rules for Internet traffic, including taking the controversial step of changing the way the law treats broadband providers so they are subject to stricter utility-like regulation.

In a two-page statement and a two-minute online video, Obama came out in favor of the toughest possible regulation of Internet service providers on an issue that has flooded the Federal Communications Commission with a record of about 4 million public comments.

"Ever since the Internet was created, it's been organized around basic principles of openness, fairness and freedom," Obama said in the video posted on the White House website.

"There are no gatekeepers deciding which sites you get to access. There are no toll roads on the information superhighway," he said. "Abandoning these principals would threaten to end the Internet as we know it."

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said Monday that he was "grateful" for Obama's input and called the president's statement "an important welcome addition" to the agency's deliberations.

But Wheeler said the legal issues involved with crafting the rules are complex and the FCC has "more work to do."

"We must take the time to get the job done correctly, once and for all, in order to successfully protect consumers and innovators online," Wheeler said.

In May, the FCC voted to begin a formal rule-making process to consider regulations on Internet traffic after previous net-neutrality rules were largely struck down by a federal court.

The rules proposed by Wheeler, whom Obama appointed last year, could allow preferential treatment for some companies willing to pay broadband providers for faster content delivery.

The FCC asked the public for comments and was inundated with opposition to such a move. Consumer groups and net-neutrality advocates have pushed the FCC not to allow such preferential treatment, which they have likened to Internet toll roads.

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Obama calls on FCC to toughen proposed net-neutrality rules

U.S. President Barack Obama, left, is greeted by Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife, Peng Liyuan, for the dinner hosted by Xi for APEC leaders at the Beijing National Aquatics Center in Beijing, Monday, Nov. 10, 2014. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Beijing (CNN) -- Even as President Obama is expected to raise the issues of democratic rights and press freedoms during a trip to China this week, there is a question whether he will hold his own news conference with reporters covering his three-day stop in Beijing.

White House officials accompanying Obama cautioned leaders in Beijing are still balking at the U.S. proposal for a joint news conference with Chinese President Xi. But consultations with Chinese officials continue on the issue, aides said.

"No final word," one senior administration official said.

A separate official stressed the President may go forward with his own news conference, without Xi, a move that may add pressure to already tense U.S.-Chinese relations.

Obama administration officials prepared reporters for the possibility of limited access to Obama during a background briefing with reporters last week. Reservations among Chinese officials were cited as the sole reason for potential press restrictions.

"If you go back to when Chinese leaders have agreed to joint press availabilities, you'll have a very hard time finding one where they have been willing to take questions from the press," said Brookings Institution analyst Ken Lieberthal at a briefing on the President's trip last week.

"So we want it; they don't. They are the host. That's where we end up," Lieberthal added.

Joint news conferences are a norm for U.S. presidents as they travel much of the world. Generally, Obama and foreign leaders will engage in a news conference described as "2+2" with journalists, meaning two questions each from U.S. and foreign reporters. But there are rare exceptions, such as Obama's visit to Saudi Arabia earlier this year.

Read more:
Obama's press conundrum in China

Who is Obama #39;s AG nominee Loretta Lynch?
Who is Obama #39;s Attorney General (AG) nominee Loretta Lynch after Eric Holder resigns? Why not wait until January and the new congress? BTW, she defended the Clintons during the Whitewater ...

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