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President Obama on Monday called on federal regulators to toughen proposed net-neutrality rules for Internet traffic, including taking the controversial step of changing the way the law treats broadband providers so they are subject to stricter utility-like regulation.

In a two-page statement and a two-minute online video, Obama came out in favor of the toughest possible regulation of Internet service providers on an issue that has flooded the Federal Communications Commission with a record of about 4 million public comments.

"Ever since the Internet was created, it's been organized around basic principles of openness, fairness and freedom," Obama said in the video posted on the White House website.

"There are no gatekeepers deciding which sites you get to access. There are no toll roads on the information superhighway," he said. "Abandoning these principals would threaten to end the Internet as we know it."

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said Monday that he was "grateful" for Obama's input and called the president's statement "an important welcome addition" to the agency's deliberations.

But Wheeler said the legal issues involved with crafting the rules are complex and the FCC has "more work to do."

"We must take the time to get the job done correctly, once and for all, in order to successfully protect consumers and innovators online," Wheeler said.

In May, the FCC voted to begin a formal rule-making process to consider regulations on Internet traffic after previous net-neutrality rules were largely struck down by a federal court.

The rules proposed by Wheeler, whom Obama appointed last year, could allow preferential treatment for some companies willing to pay broadband providers for faster content delivery.

The FCC asked the public for comments and was inundated with opposition to such a move. Consumer groups and net-neutrality advocates have pushed the FCC not to allow such preferential treatment, which they have likened to Internet toll roads.

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Obama calls on FCC to toughen proposed net-neutrality rules