Tech and Web NEWS

FCC chairman Julius Genachowski pushes ‘open Internet’ guidelines, launches public consultation openinternet.gov into net neutrality

By Amarendra Bhushan for CEOWORLD Magazine Updated:September 22, 2009

The long-standing dispute over the issue of net neutrality in the US has further flared up yesterday with both the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and lawmakers backed the notion of making the internet a neutral place.

The new spell of debate on bringing upon net neutrality in the US was triggered by Monday speech of Julius Genachowski, in which he said he would seek to add some new regulations on internet service providers (ISPs) to safeguard net neutrality, Desire Athow wrote.

On other hand, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has launched a new website (www.openinternet.gov) to canvass opinion regarding the expansion of net neutrality regulations.

FCC chairman Julius Genachowski announced plans this week to introduce two new regulations which would prevent ISPs from discriminating against particular internet content or applications, while requiring operators to maintain transparency over their network congestion policies.

The chairman announced that he would start the process of formulating the regulations following a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) at the FCC’s October meeting. The issue of net neutrality has again come to light as some ISPs have experimented with slowing or even preventing peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing.

Much of the high-volume P2P traffic is the unauthorized spread of copyrighted material, but not all of it is, which has led some critics to argue that if carriers are allowed to degrade or block traffic unregulated, they become the ‘gatekeepers’ of the internet, damaging potential competition and innovation.

In his speech revealing the proposals, Genachowski said: ‘Why has the internet proven to be such a powerful engine for creativity, innovation, and economic growth? A big part of the answer traces back to one key decision by the internet’s original architects; to make the internet an open system.’

The proposed rules would prohibit telcos from intentionally speeding up or slowing traffic based on which service or application was being used. Some telcos have already been found to be deliberately limiting traffic speeds for peer-to-peer and file-sharing services.

Like this article! ‹ First SuperSpeed USB 3.0 product gets certified Microsoft bribes Apple retail managers and staff ›
Share this Post: Get It Delivered To Your Inbox