After months of speculation, heated debate and protest from Internet consumers, providers and regulators from President Obama on down, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler on Wednesday finally announced his intentions to reclassify and regulate the Internet as a public utility to ensure net neutrality. Wheeler outlined his intentions to reclassify and regulate broadband, wired and wireless Internet service providers as public utilities under a modernized interpretation of the 1996 Telecommunications Act in a Wednesday Wired op-ed .