FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is revising his controversial Internet Fast lane plan after facing mounting pressure from consumer advocates and Silicon Valley giants.

 

Under the new proposal, it will still be okay for Internet service providers to charge companies like Netflix and Amazon for faster access to customers. But the FCC will ensure broadband companies like Comcast and Time Warner Cable won't put non-paying companies in a "slow lane," according to an agency official. 

Confused? You're not alone.

The new proposal employs some strange logic. There can't be a fast lane without a slow-by-comparison lane. And Wheeler's plan isn't much of a revision of his former proposal. It's a restatement of his initial idea -- with an emphasis that the FCC will put its foot down if broadband providers abuse their new powers. 

In a Friday letter to two pro-net neutrality groups Wheeler sought to reassure open Internet advocates that he won't let broadband providers run amok.

"If someone acts to divide the Internet between 'haves' and 'have nots,' I will use every power at our disposal to stop it," Wheeler wrote. That includes labeling broadband Internet a utility, he said, which would give the FCC far more power to regulate the industry. Referred to as the "nuclear option," that's extremely unlikely to happen, given Congress' oversight of the FCC and the powerful telecommunications lobby's staunch opposition of increased regulation.