The Federal Communications Commission voted on Thursday to carry out tough net neutrality regulations in a dramatic ruling that disregarded loud opposition by cable companies, telecom carriers and Republicans in Washington.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler finds allies in Democratic Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel giving the green light to a reclassification of consumer Internet broadband as a utility under the law.

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The FCC plans to wield its new authority to prohibit "paid prioritization," an industry practice that lets Internet service providers to charge content providers a fee for more reliable public access to their content.

The communications watchdog also seeks to prohibit the throttling and blocking of lawful services and content. These rules also cover mobile phone Internet access.

A FCC fact sheet said the regulator plans to carry out new open Internet regulations through the probe and processing of all complaints. The reclassification of Internet service as a utility also allows the FCC to answer complaints at interconnection spots, the meeting point between service providers and netizens, on an individual basis.

Before the vote, Wheeler said the Internet is too important to let broadband providers to decide the rules on their own.

After casting her vote, Clyburn stressed that before the new rules, Internet providers were free to throttle, block, discriminate or favor "for any user, for any reason or for no reason at all."

Several months ago, such net neutrality rules were seen as next to impossible. In the fall last year, Wheeler was reportedly still eyeing a "hybrid" tack to net neutrality that would have meant big concessions to cable and telecom companies, who insist that tough rules will put a damper on innovation and investment.

However, President Obama announced his support for tight net neutrality rules in Novemberlast year and the FCC chairman had to get in line with the White House position and the general public's support of net neutrality.

Silicon Valley titans like Google and technology start-ups such as Tumblr also advocated tough net neutrality rules.

The vote did not sit well with the FCC's two Republican commissioners. Commissioner Ajit Pai described the decision as an "about-face."