On Thursday, Tom Wheeler, the Chairman of the FCC, tried to explain the new net neutrality ruling in anticipation of the voting that will take place on May 15. This announcement came after concerns that the agency would allow priority lanes of traffic to be charged by the major internet provider companies.

In his blog, Wheeler has said that "To be very direct, the proposal would establish that behavior harmful to consumers or competition by limiting the openness of the Internet will not be permitted." However, this is contrary to what many people think and according to many commentators, Wheeler's proposal will open the doors for companies to buy priority lanes for the subscribers. The perception of this proposal as well as the contradicting idea presented by Wheeler is being studied by the concerned agencies.

Wheeler also defended the proposal and said that the proposal would establish a high bar in terms of standards. However, there are still questions on how to ensure that these deals will be commercially reasonable in the end.

In defense of their proposal, FCC officials have explained that they won't provide priority to those who can pay more for fast-lane access over those who can't. For instance, Google or Netflix will not necessarily get a boost over other sites that cannot pay for the priority lane such as those that provide access for a heart monitor, in an extreme case.

Some other parts of the proposal are also said to mirror what was done in 2010 when the FCC proposed an open Internet and in which no legal content would be blocked. This was made to ensure that legal content wouldn't be blocked and that internet providers would not discriminate against websites or other competitors. However, the terms are quite unclear so they are still trying to refine them in the latest proposal.

This will definitely be a difficult decision to make especially since there are a lot of ramifications either way.