The ruling also poses a dilemma for the FCC and President Barack Obama, who has pushed for equal treatment of Internet traffic going back to his first presidential campaign.
Supporters of net neutrality had urged Mr. Obama's first FCC chairman, Julius Genachowski, to reclassify broadband as a telecom service. But the commission balked in the face of strong Republican opposition, a decision that ultimately weakened its legal position.
The current FCC chairman, Tom Wheeler, has said he is against regulating broadband Internet in the same manner of the landline phone system. Such regulation could expose broadband providers to a panoply of new federal rules on pricing and service—which critics say would lead to excessive control of the industry by Washington.
"In the Internet's infancy, the commission made the right decision to leave it free from the interference of government regulators. Today's ruling vacates the commission's attempt to go back on this policy and to smother the Internet with rules designed for the monopoly telephone network," House Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton (R., Mich.) and Rep. Greg Walden (R., Ore.) said in a statement.
The ruling left some room for FCC action by finding the agency had the authority to police broadband use, albeit not through the method it used in 2010. Bolstered by that finding, Mr. Wheeler's FCC could choose to bring enforcement actions on a case-by-case basis against companies that act in an allegedly anticompetitive manner.
Mr. Wheeler suggested as much in a speech last week. He said "history instructs us that not all new proposals have been benign" and said the government retained the ability to intervene if companies were abusing their market power.
On Tuesday, he issued a statement saying he was "committed to maintaining our networks as engines for economic growth, test beds for innovative services and products, and channels for all forms of speech protected by the First Amendment."
The FCC also could weigh in on the issue when it considers cable-industry mergers, by imposing conditions on big players. Speculation that a wave of cable mergers is in the offing has been fueled in recent months by Charter Communications Inc. CHTR -0.50% 's pursuit of Time Warner Cable Inc. TWC +0.31%
Silicon Valley companies criticized the ruling and called on Washington to respond. Telecom companies "are now in a position to not only make considerable sums of money but, in many ways, they are one of the most important arbiters of culture and speech and what is or isn't going to be on the Internet," said Eric Klinker, chief executive of BitTorrent Inc., a website that allows people to swap digital movies.
If Tuesday's ruling stands, it could throw a wrench into the business models of Netflix, Google and others, potentially raising prices for consumers.
Netflix accounts for 32% of peak Internet traffic in North America, the most of any content provider, according to Sandvine, a broadband-services company. That has made Netflix a target for some cable-industry executives, who have argued the company should be subsidizing the costs of delivering its service to consumers.
In an interview last summer, Charter Communications Chief Executive Tom Rutledgenoted that all broadband capacity was "paid for by the consumer," but "you could argue that it would be more efficient for consumers if the people who are taking the bandwidth for a product were paying for the bandwidth in some fair and proportional way."
A Charter spokesman declined to comment on the ruling.
Netflix's business model assumes it will need to make large investments to acquire the rights to TV shows and movies that it offers and also factors in some costs related to moving data efficiently on the Internet's backbone. But a new fee charged by Internet providers, if it were sizable, could dent the company's profit or force it to raise prices for consumers.
The spotlight also is on Google, whose YouTube site accounts for 19% of peak Web traffic, and other major streaming-video sites.
Both are part of the Internet Association, a coalition of Web companies that supports the approach taken by the FCC. The association's president, Michael Beckerman, said Tuesday that the group supported an open Internet free from "discriminatory, anticompetitive actions by gatekeepers."
Verizon and other Internet-service providers said the ruling would have little impact on the way consumers experience the Internet. "Verizon has been and remains committed to the open Internet which provides consumers with competitive choices and unblocked access to lawful websites and content when, where, and how they want," said Verizon Executive Vice President Randal Milch.
Comcast had agreed to abide by the FCC's open Internet rules for seven years as part of a deal to win regulatory approval for its purchase of a controlling stake in media company NBCUniversal from General Electric Co. GE -2.28%
"We remain comfortable with that commitment because we have not—and will not—block our customers' ability to access lawful Internet content, applications or services," said Comcast Executive Vice President David L. Cohen in a statement.
—Ryan Knutson contributed to this article.
1. You sometimes forget that there's a world outside of you and your baby.
Luckily, everybody around you seems to be coupling up as well.
2. You never find yourself tempted by outside flirtation
He only has eyes for Siri.
3. You still feel swept away by the romance and passion of it all.
These young urbanites, in the heights of romance.
4. You and your smartphone like to get together with other couples, but you never end up talking to anyone else.
You know people who start dating and forget how to talk to other people?
5. Whenever you're in a crowd, you feel like your iPhone's the only other thing in the room.
And other people around you just distract you from all the interesting things your phone has to say.
You try to be cordial, though.
6. Sometimes you have to find ways to hide your relationship from people who wouldn't understand.
That's some valedictorian level texting technique.
7. You love your iPhone even more when you realize it's good with kids.
And it never runs out of bedtime stories.
8. It's tricky, but you've finally figured out how to incorporate your device into your other relationships.
Now, you and your smartphone can enjoy peace, quiet and togetherness after a long day of work. (Your husband can sit next to you and do the same.)
9. Your family can't judge you, because they're also smitten!
They've done everything to make your iPhone feel like part of the family!
10. And even the presidential family has expressed support for your kind of relationship.
The First Family acts as a role model of how to forge healthy, lasting relationships with one's mobile device.
11. Politicians are sometimes known to sneak around with smartphones when they should be doing their work...
LOL! Fiscal cliff? Whateva, girl! ;)
12. And glamorous celebrities fly their smartphones to chic high fashion shows.
Fashion critics appreciated the futuristic curved edges and easy usability of the - uh, outfit.
13. While you make sure to take yours along for a museum day.
Look how the two of them framed it with a white background. Bold choice!
14. You realize daily how much there is left for you to discover about each other.
Siri's very articulate -- the kind of girl you want to bring home to mom.
15. You always want to sit as close as possible to your iPhone.
Sometimes, your iPhone finds your staring a little bit -- intense.
16. You never want to fall asleep alone.
Of course, no romance is complete without the occasional awkward injury:
17. And if you still question your bond with your smartphone, just remember you've reached the point where you can poop in front of it.
The honeymoon phase is over -- but constant companionship is way more meaningful to you in the long run!
At the end of the day, who needs eye contact when you have Candy Crush! Three cheers for virtual reality.