Net neutrality is the principle for maintaining a free and open Internet, meaning Internet service providers can't discriminate between different types of online content.

"Net neutrality is fascinating because on one level, it's a very simple, straightforward idea, but when you have to implement it and talk about the technological parts, the economic parts and the legal parts, it gets very difficult," Rep. Matt Pierce, D-Bloomington, says.

The Federal Communications Commission decided last week in a 3-2 vote along party lines to reclassify the Internet as a Title II telecommunications service.

"This order does not regulate the Internet," Barbara Cherry, professor in the Indiana University Department of Telecommunications and former FCC Strategic Planning Deputy, says. "What it does do is give the FCC jurisdiction for regulatory oversight of providers who provide access to the internet."

It does this by classifying the Internet as a common carrier. Cherry says one misconception people have about the FCC's order is that the Internet will now be considered a public utility. However, to be a common carrier is not mutually exclusive with being a public utility. In fact, they are two different bodies of law.

Common carriers are in the business of transporting something for a customer for a fee. In the beginning, this applied to the transport of tangible goods or people, but as technology developed through the 19th century, the classification also applied to entities that electronically moved information. At the time of the Communications Act of 1934, this meant telegraph and telephone. The FCC's decision last week extended this definition to the Internet.

"What this order does is say broadband access to the Internet is a Title II telecommunications, or common carriage, service and that's what gives the FCC jurisdiction," Cherry says.

She says parties providing a Title II service have the following obligations:

• To provide service upon reasonable request
• To do so without unreasonable discrimination
• To do so at a just and reasonable price and with adequate care and reliability

Smithville Communications is the largest rural broadband provider in Indiana, serving 20,000 subscribers in 18 counties. They are considered a common carrier.

"The concern for us is the rules tend to change too often within the FCC and we've been a victim of that," Cullen McCarty, executive vice president of Smithville Communications says.

He says for the first time, the communications industry has been united by expressing the need for concrete legislation on the matter of the Internet's classification and net neutrality.

"I think that legislating is really the best answer because it is a very complex issue and there is so much at stake in terms of the economic impact, not only for carriers but for users as well," McCarty says. "As a small carrier, the principles of net neutrality have always applied."

Pierce agrees that it would be great for Congress to come up with a good kind of regime to reach the goals of having an open Internet with non-discriminatory handling of people's traffic.

"But like everything we talk about in D.C. today, it's complete gridlock and polarization," Pierce says. "So you have, on the Republican side, a hostility to any kind of regulation relating to anything approaching a common carrier approach. Then you have Democrats on the other side saying we need robust rules here to make sure everyone is treated fairly."

Many Republicans claim President Obama had too much influence over the FCC's decision. Pierce says Congress will likely use their power under the Congressional Review Act to vote to overturn the FCC's rules. However, Obama must sign off on it to make it valid. Pierce says this is unlikely because he spoke in favor of the Title II classification and Congress will have a difficult time finding the two-thirds support needed to overturn the president's veto.