Shock horror! FCC’s net neutrality plans sound pretty sensible

Following months of intensive negotiations aimed at finding middle ground in the net neutrality policy dispute, the FCC has finally come up with some ‘draft rules of the road’ for internet governance.  The new proposals, which are subject to an FCC vote later this month, were outlined by Chairman Julius Genachowski in a speech yesterday.

Importantly, the FCC has decided not to reclassify broadband as a Title II telecommunications service, meaning that it will continue as a lightly regulated ‘information service', rather than be subject to more onerous ‘common carrier’ rules.

The draft Framework includes many of the protections sought by neutrality advocates.  For instance, broadband providers will be barred from slowing down or blocking content from competitors. They will also have to be transparent about how they manage congestion on their networks.  On the other hand, the new rules would not preclude all traffic management practices, nor would they necessarily block the introduction of new business/pricing models:

“The proposed framework also recognizes that broadband providers must have the ability and investment incentives to build out and run their networks...To this end, broadband providers need meaningful flexibility to manage their networks - for example, to deal with traffic that’s harmful to the network or unwanted by users, and to address the effects of congestion...The record also demonstrates the importance of business innovation to promote network investment and efficient use of networks, including measures to match price to cost such as usage-based pricing”.

There’s much detail yet to be debated, and the political makeup of the ‘Commission means the vote (on 21^st December) could go either way, but at least we have what appears to be a workable basis for resolving the hitherto polarised positions in the net neutrality debate.