FCC Chairman on What It Means to Regulate the Internet

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski met with Wall Street Journal reporters and editors on Tuesday.

The FCC is trying to craft new rules that would require phone and cable companies to treat all legal Internet traffic that flows over their lines equally. The agency proposed draft "network neutrality" rules last fall, much to the dismay of Internet providers, who say there's no need for the government to step in. "No one is spending time working on the [national] broadband plan saying 'how can we re-regulate?'" he said. "People are spending their time saying about how can we promote investment, how can we promote this infrastructure for global competitiveness. What are the things we need to do to address the kind of gaps we're talking about?" One thing that Internet providers are watching for closely is if the FCC's plan will propose moving back to pre-Bush regulations that would give the agency more clear authority over those Internet lines.