US government to end net neutrality on June 11

The US network regulator FCC has announced that the rules guaranteeing net neutrality in the US will expire on June 11. From that moment on, providers are allowed to give certain services priority over others for a fee.

The FCC agreed to repeal net neutrality rules in December and now it is known for the first time when the regulator will repeal the rules thanks to a statement from an FCC commissioner. The rules surrounding net neutrality have been in effect since 2015.

Instead of net neutrality, providers must notify customers whether they prioritize certain services over others. The new rules allow carriers to negotiate deals with service providers to prioritize that, which is a potential new source of revenue. For example, a U.S. carrier may decide to prioritize traffic from one video service over another, potentially causing customers to wait longer or get a lower bitrate with a competing service.

The FCC wanted to get rid of the rules, because the regulator reasoned that the rules lead to less large investments by providers in their networks. Little of this has been shown in recent years. A procedure is underway to stop the abolition of net neutrality, Reuters notes. Several states have also introduced their own rules to maintain net neutrality.