WNA

A Democratic member of the FCC called to delay a vote on new net neutrality rules, reports the NY Times, throwing into doubt whether the chairman will be able to muster enough votes at an F.C.C. meeting next week to issue proposed rules.

Jessica Rosenworcel, one of three Democrats on the five-member commission, said in a speech Wednesday that a delay was warranted because of a “torrent of public response” to the idea that the commission’s rules might create a fast lane on the Internet for companies willing to pay for it.

Chairman Tom Wheeler defended his approach but the FCC is receiving negative feedback about its relaxed approach to letting the marketplace evolve net neutrality rules.

More than 100 tech companies have signed a letter protesting the FCC’s proposed net neutrality rules the agency is considering at its May 15 meeting.

The letter to the FCC Chairman and commissioners protests the FCC’s plans to implement net neutrality rules that could let ISP’s charge content providers like Netflix or Amazon to deliver their packets faster or at a higher quality. The full text of the letter can be seen here.

Tech firms that signed the letter include Amazon, Facebook, Google, Kickstarter, Twilio, Codecademy, OpenDNS, Zynga, Tumblr, Reddit and Foursquare.

The proposed change in rules, comes after the original network neutrality rules implemented in 2010 were struck down by a U.S. Federal Court of Appeals earlier this year.

The FCC has tried to downplay this threat, but has so far been unable to convince people knowledgeable about the industry that this plan isn’t a step back for the open internet.