mr. wheeler, he really does believe we can create a world where data is created equally and not a two-class-tier internet. >> make enemies in a 50-mile radius raising this question as devil's advocate which is i dig the trenches, i sink the pipes, i run this stuff, you get to use a whole ton of it and interfere with meyer is advice for other people. i'm supposed to consider this fair and even why? >> i'm a capitalist. i believe in competition. the reality of the world that comcast and time warner and at&t operate under is a monopoly. this he don't compete in the same cities. the monopoly we need to treat theses can like utilities, just like water and just like electricity. >> received numerous breaks where they are anyway in terms of right of ways and band witt what have you? >> they put in hundreds of billions of dollars in infrastructure. your point is well taken. >> okay. >> and we need a world where people have access to the internet where they are not discriminated against based on what they can afford to pay. >> right. so somebody defended the cable companies, we can move past that so

mr. wheeler. hopefully it will bring them back to the negotiating table for a more common-sense moderate approach as being proposed in the energy and commerce committee and house of representatives. >> congressman kevin cramer republican from north dakota. also speaking out former f.c.c. commissioner. who says these rules are just not good for consumers. >> here we have for the first time the united states after the past 20 years priding itself on not regulating the internet suddenly something has changed and the american government has decided to regulate the internet. this cannot be good for the mubble. -- american public. >> those who advocate says something has changed and the providers have started to charge fees to pick favorites, pick winners over louisers on the content side. are you saying that title 2 is the wrong way or that any regulation is bad? >> i would actually don't believe there's any need for regulation and all of these allegations about isp's imposing charges on service -- on

mr. wheeler.ully it will bring them back to the negotiating table for a more common sense, moderate approach. >> that is congressman kevin cramer, republican in north dakota here it also speaking out former fcc commissioner, who says these rules are not good for consumers. >> here we have in the united states, for 20 years writing itself on not regulating the internet, and something has changed. this cannot be good for the american public. >> yet those who advocate title to say that something has changed the internet service providers have started to charge fees to pick favorites, winners over losers on the content side. are you saying that title ii is the wrong way to do it, or any regulation on the internet is bad? >> i do not believe there is any need for regulation. all of these allegations about isps imposing charges on service -- on content companies this is all hypothetical. they cannot point to actual examples. this is all regulation in the name of what might possibly happen in the future.

mr. wheeler.opefully it will bring them back to the negotiating table for a more common sense moderate approach as we have approached in the commerce committee. >> covers men kevin cramer of north dakota. we appreciate it. "bloomberg west" is back in a moment. ♪ >> um cory johnson. this is "bloomberg west." one of the things tom warner talked about was the unusual response from the internet activists who prevailed in this fight. joining us from washington is evan greer. the fight for the future campaign had interesting response from the people of the internet. thanks for joining us. talk to me about what you did to get people to give a heck about fcc policy. >> thanks for having me on. this is an unprecedented victory that a year ago everyone thought was impossible, at least everyone in washington, d.c. they did not anticipate what happens when any institution of power comes to take away people's internet freedom. they should have. anytime that happens, people rise up. we use the internet to defen

mr. wheeler appears to have already put together?, i certainly hope that over the next three weeks, before the vote is formally taken the chairman and my fellow commissioners will be open to a dialog and i think that if they are apprised of all the facts, for example, the comparison between the u.s. with its free market approach and europe with its utility approach they'll come to see things my way and in addition to that, there are a lot of legal hurdles that we will have to cross if the president's plan to regulate the internet is passed. that's going to embroil us in years of wasteful litigation, create a lot of uncertainty for the internet economy and hopefully that is a factor that will play into considerations as well. >> it will be a busy three weeks. commissioner, before we let you go, the thing that the market is trying to parse in addition to what these rules look like is, what it means for some of the deals on the table, comcast purchase of time warner, comcast being our parent company, here at cnbc, any take on what this

mr. chairman wheeler for listening to the american people. but this is about senator markey and senator booker have already said, this is about saying to a small business in rural vermont that you are going to be able to utilize the internet in the same way as walmart. it says to a guy in rural america who's working on a blog that you can use the internet the same way that "the new york times" can i don't say that internet. that we're not going to have discrimination on what is clearly one of the most important economic engines of the 21st century. so i am proud of the work that the american people have done. we have a lot more work in front of us. let's continue to go forward together. thank you. >> and batting cleanup, al franken from minnesota. >> thank you senator markey. thank you, senator sanders, for your leadership senator booker as well and others. so many others who fought for this great day. this is preserving net neutrality. that's what just happened. we dodged a bullet in terms of the time frame of what the internet has been. all

mr. president. congratulations wheeler. maybe we'll have five years of totally slow growth. but thanks aman.'ll be okay. it's friday. i'll get through this. but i've watched a lot of things happen that i can't do anything about. >> all right as we mentioned we're going to talk more about this decision and it's ill pact on the tech sector and the internet providers. dan is here on set with us and dan just looking through, sorry, joe, the new york times didn't write an ad. i was hoping to taunt you through the morning with it. they did write little changes for internet users. what do you think this means? >> this is fantastic. this is going to be the best thing ever for telecom attorneys and lobbyiests. it's the telecom attorneys and lobbists act. when it was written i was an economist working on that subject and we worked for all the competitors. in the '96 act they did two thicks they didn't do here which is that they required unbundling of the network which spawned all of these competitors. there was 31 ipos most of which we were involved with and that was like back 20 years ago and all of

mr. dickerson. >> thank you, chairman wheeler, for the opportunity to speak today. i am here to thank you and your colleagues for taking decisive action to protect the internet as a platform for entrepreneurship and innovation. at sea is an online marketplace. we have democratized access to entrepreneurship for over 1.2 million sellers 88 percent of whom are women who collectively sold $1.35 billion worth of merchandise. most are sole proprietors who work from home, live in all 50 states. we rely on a free and open internet that allowed our company to grow from a tiny startup to a global company with over 600 employees allowing the micro- micro businesses to reach buyers around the world and compete with much bigger, more established brands. in 1993 it allowed me an english major with it data entry job to jumpstart my career and technology by teaching myself how to code. [laughter] without strong rules to prevent discrimination online the innovation economy would suffer. take etsy as an example. we charge $0.20 to list an item and take only three and a half percent

mr. dickerson. >> thank you, chairman wheeler, for the opportunity to his today.s the ceo of etsy, i'm here to thank you and your colleagues for taking decisive action to protect the internet. etsy's is an online marketplace for you can buy handmade and vintage good from artists around the world. we've democratize access to a different ownership for -- entrepreneurhsipship for 1.2 million sellers. most are sole proprietors work from home. they live in all 50 states and the depend on their etsy income to support their families. 18% support themselves full-time on etsy. etsy and our sellers rely on a free and open internet that allows the company to grow from a tiny startup to -- in a brooklyn apartment to a global company with over 600 employees. it allows the micro businesses that sell to reach buyers around the world and compute with much bigger, more established brands. bqackack in 1993, it allowed me, in english major with a data entry job at a newspaper to jump start my career in technology by teaching myself how to code. there is hope for endless majors. -- f

mr. cohen writes in part we fully embrace the open internet principles that have been laid out by president obama and chairman wheeler and have now been adopted by the fcc. he goes on to say we don't believe statutory provision is adopted when franklin d. roosevelt was president should be stretched to govern the 21st century internet. our coverage of today's ruling continues at 5:45. we talk live to a professor thea the university of pennsylvania about what it all means for you, the consumer and that's all ahead as we said at 5:45. let's go back to the weather, the same system that brought parts of the area's storm. >> that storm clobbered places that were hit hard just last week. check out the scene in raleigh, north carolina. six inches fell here overnight and neighboring cities got even more. the weight of it proved to be too much for trees and power lines. at one point more than 200,000 customers were without power across north carolina but for some transplants from the north, they didn't seem to mind. >> i guess as a yankee from the north i find this to be amusing. >> in virginia, the snow covered cars and it al