A U.S. appeals court has turned down a government effort to impose certain regulations on Internet service providers.
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission had said Internet carriers have to treat all Web traffic equally.
The case grew out of an attempt by a large Internet company called Comcast, to slow traffic from customers who use huge amounts of Internet capacity for video and similar applications.
Comcast said it put limits on such customers so they would not tangle up traffic for everyone else.
The Comcast position was supported by other telecom firms. The FCC position, called "net neutrality," won support from companies that use the Internet, including Yahoo, Amazon and Google, as well as consumer groups.
It is not yet clear how this ruling will affect plans to greatly expand the U.S. high speed Internet network.
Some information for this report provided by AP, Reuters and AFP.