The Federal Communications Commission is approaching new rules for protection of the open Internet. In the meantime, the tension between cable giants and consumer activists intensifies.

During the recent meeting, the protesters calling for an open web were ejected, and a couple of Republican members of the regulator’s panel objected to the new proposals. In result, the panel voted 3-2 along party lines to advance a proposal in which content companies could pay for prioritizing their traffic by ISPs. The proposal is expected to be finalized after a 4-month public consultation period and once again challenged by the cable industry.

In fact, the Federal Communications Commission found itself without rules to govern the worldwide web in January after it lost a court case against Verizon, which challenged the FCC’s powers to regulate the Internet. FCC chairman claimed that he strongly supports an open Internet.

Basically, the Federal Communications Commission has two proposals for regulating the web. One of them is favored by the FCC chairman. Here the agency would be monitoring any efforts to create a high speed service on a case-by-case basis under Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act. The FCC is supposed to block any deals that are not “commercially reasonable”.

Another proposal is supported by consumer groups, activists and many tech firms. In this case the broadband internet access will be treated as a utility, just like electricity or heat, as it was until dozen years ago President George W Bush separated telecoms communications from “information services”. The supporters of this proposal point out that redefining broadband as under Title II of the Communications Act would grant the agency more power over such companies as Comcast, Verizon and AT&T, as those oppose such a measure.

The Federal Communications Commission has been hit with a huge number of calls and got more than a million emails from those who remain concerned about the impact of the new rules, after their details were leaked a few weeks ago. Among those who expressed concern are such tech giants as Apple, Facebook, Google and Twitter. The FCC recognized that the public response has been tremendous because the stakes are so high.