FCC chair holds roundtable on net neutrality in Campbell ahead of agency vote NBC Bay Area [Video]

The concept of net neutrality — the idea of an open, accessible and unregulated internet for everyone — has been a political battle for years. On April 25, the Federal Communications Commission will vote on restoring net neutrality as the law of the land. 

Ahead of that, FCC chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel held a roundtable discussion about the vote with community leaders and agencies at the Santa Clara County Fire Department in Campbell Monday. 

She chose the site to focus on how restoring net neutrality would benefit public safety, pointing to how that very fire department had had its internet access throttled — or cut off — automatically when it hit its internet use cap during the 2018 Mendocino Fire. 

Rosenworcel heard from the department’s assistant fire chief, Brian Glass, who said fire agencies suddenly couldn’t coordinate resources out in the field. 

“The firefighters banded together using personal devices from different carriers that maybe weren’t being throttled or hadn’t reached the cap in …