<P> Following this ruling in Verizon Communications Inc. v. FCC (2014), the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) received 3.7 million comments urging it to change classification of the Internet to a telecommunications service, which would allow the FCC to uphold net neutrality . The FCC then changed its analysis, reclassified retail providers of BIAS as common carriers, and adopted revised open Internet requirements . On February 26, 2015, the FCC ruled in favor of net neutrality by reclassifying broadband as a common carrier under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934 and Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 . On April 13, 2015, the FCC published the final rule on its new "net neutrality" regulations . These rules went into effect on June 12, 2015 . </P> <P> The United States Telecom Association, which represents large telecom companies, filed a lawsuit against the FCC in 2015 challenging the net neutrality rule . The Association argued that the FCC's classification of broadband carriers as "common carriers" was a form of administrative overreach . In June 2016, a divided panel of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld the FCC's net neutrality rules and the FCC's determination that broadband access is a public utility, rather than a luxury . </P> <P> Upon becoming FCC chairman in April 2017, Ajit Pai proposed to repeal the policies; on December 14, 2017, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted in favor of repealing these policies, 3--2, along party lines, as the 2015 vote had occurred . On January 4, 2018, the FCC published the official text for "Restoring Internet freedom". </P> <P> While the term is new, the ideas underlying net neutrality have a long pedigree in telecommunications practice and regulation . Services such as telegrams and the phone network (officially, the public switched telephone network or PSTN) have been considered common carriers under U.S. law, which means that they have been akin to public utilities and expressly forbidden to give preferential treatment . They have been regulated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in order to ensure fair pricing and access . </P>

When did the fcc vote on net neutrality