Here’s The Text Of The FCC’s Net Neutrality Rules

(GNN) - The FCC followed through on its promise to release a massive document laying out its new rules for net neutrality. The order comes two weeks after the board voted to classify broadband Internet as a utility.

The FCC confirmed with TechCrunch last night that the order would be released today. The hundreds of pages in the report lay out a detailed plan for how net neutrality will be enforced. A quick read of the document indicates that it hews to what the FCC originally outlined in a summary that was publicly released before the commission voted on the rules.

Here’s the text:

2015 Net Neutrality Rules

Today’s release also brings us closer to potential legal challenges. As FCC chairman Tom Wheeler said earlier this year, “The big dogs [ISPs] have promised that they’re going to litigate.” The framework for those challenges will likely be drawn from the dissenting opinions of the Republican members of the board.

Put more simply, this is not the end of the net neutrality saga. Instead, we have the battles lines now well drawn, and soon, understood. TechCrunch will be tracking the slew of responses from ISP’s, politicians and lobbyists this release is sure to bring.

FEATURED IMAGE: PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS/AP

Google Plans Low-Cost, High Quality Wi-Fi Networks For Small- And Medium-Sized Businesses, Report Says

Google is apparently planning to offers subsidized, commercial-grade Wi-Fi hardware to small and medium-sized businesses, The Information reports, alongside software to help greatly improve the quality of the Wi-Fi experience at places like doctors’ offices, restaurants, gyms and more. The hardware would be the only cost involved, as it would use the businesses’ existing Internet connections, unlike the Google-provided Wi-Fi networks running at Starbucks businesses across the U.S.

The plan is to get better Wi-Fi in the hands of these businesses in order to get more users working on Google apps and services, which ultimately means more customers spending more time engaging with Google’s money-making products, even when they’re away from their usual home and work Wi-Fi networks. This is the same team behind Google Fiber, the search giant’s high-speed net and TV service, which is being trialled in select markets across the U.S., The Information reports.

A key feature of said network would be that it could remember a user based on their Google account login, and set them up on any other Google-controlled Wi-Fi network anywhere in the world automatically. This so-called Hotspot 2.0 feature would help in terms of clearing up the onerous task of signing in to new networks every single time. And for Google, it means getting users more friction-free access to their Google accounts and services, which has obvious benefits in terms of its ad recommendation engines and products.

Google ultimately wants to blanket the world in connectivity, because that’s the best way for it to grow its user base and get its products in front of as many people as possible. The company announced its acquisition of Titan Aerospace last month, which helps with its ambitious Project Loon – bringing Internet connections to remote corners of the globe. This SMB Wi-Fi project isn’t quite as fantastic in scale, but if real, it has the same aim: make it so as many people as possible can use Google products as much as possible, as often as possible, as easily as possible.

We’ve reached out to Google for confirmation or more info, and will update if we hear back. Update: Google had no comment on this report.