• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, January 13, 2015

Republican lawmaker Bob Latta is once again trying to block the Federal Communications Commission from reclassifying broadband service as a utility.

Treating broadband as a utility “will undoubtedly impede the economic growth and innovation that have resulted in the broadband marketplace absent government interference,” the Congressman from Ohio said in a statement issued yesterday, when he reintroduced a bill to define broadband access as an “information” service. Unlike utility services, information services aren't subject to common carrier rules.

Latta introduced similar legislation last May, when the FCC was in the early phases of crafting new broadband regulations. At the time, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler didn't appear inclined to support the idea that broadband should be treated as a utility service.

Since then, numerous net neutrality supporters -- including President Obama -- have urged the FCC to regulate high-speed Internet service as a utility. Doing so is the only way the FCC can impose the kinds of regulations that would prohibit Internet service providers from charging companies higher fees for faster delivery of their material, according to many net neutrality supporters.

Wheeler seems to have been swayed by the advocates' views. Last week, during an interview at the Consumer Electronics Show, he indicated that the FCC will reclassify broadband as a utility.

Wheeler says he will circulate a proposal to other commissioners by Feb. 5, and that the FCC will vote later that month.

Meanwhile, politicians are already preparing to take up the issue on Capitol Hill. In addition to Latta's bill, two Democratic lawmakers re-introduced a measure that would require the FCC to prohibit ISPs from creating paid fast lanes.

Some GOP lawmakers also reportedly are readying a bill that would require broadband providers to follow some net neutrality principles, but would stop short of classifying them as utilities.

That proposal, reportedly backed by the cable and telecom industry, would establish “Title X” -- a broadband-focused section of the Telecommunications Law that would authorize the FCC to prohibit broadband providers from blocking or degrading traffic, and from charging companies for faster delivery of their material.