The US Senate will vote on Wednesday on whether to reverse a decision by the Trump administration to roll back Obama-era "net neutrality" rules, Democratic senators said on Monday.  

Advocates of keeping the 2015 open-Internet rules have the backing of 50 US senators, including Republican Susan Collins. And with the absence of Senator John McCain because of illness, they believe they will win on a 50-49 vote.  

The effort still faces an uphill battle - it is uncertain if the Republican-controlled US House of Representatives will even vote on the issue and the White House backs the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules approved last December.  

The FCC repealed rules set under President Barack Obama, a Democrat, that barred providers from blocking or slowing down access to content or charging consumers more for certain content.  

Those rules were intended to ensure a free and open Internet, give consumers equal access to web content and bar broadband service providers from favouring their own material or others.