The FCC's Crusade to Keep the Internet Free

With Congress unable to agree on whether to stop companies from carving up the Internet, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski is left with few choices.

He wants to uphold President Barack Obama's campaign pledge to protect the open Web, even as the industry gets set to impose restrictions. The Google-Verizon plan hit like "a tidal wave" because Google had been "a very strong supporter of Net neutrality," Darrell West, vice-president of governance studies at the Brookings Institution, said. Google seems to be laying the groundwork for tiered pricing, he added. "The Internet is going to become more like other parts of the economy," he said. The chairman, an Obama appointee who leads a 3-2 Democratic majority, could argue that rules written for telephone service contain the authority he needs to require that Internet providers treat traffic equally. If he tries to apply phone rules to broadband, carriers and congressional Republicans would protest. Cable and phone companies fear that phone-style rules could lead to rate regulation. The companies warn that would delay investments to upgrade the Internet.

If Genachowski goes that route, "he's going to be sued," says Rep Cliff Stearns (R-FL), the top Republican on the House subcommittee on communications, technology, and the Internet. "We're not going to get innovation if the government steps in."

Chairman Genachowski declines to say when he might put phone-style rules to a vote by the FCC. "He needs to act swiftly," says Gigi Sohn, president of Public Knowledge, a Washington-based group that favors Net neutrality. "The more he delays, the more he gives the opposition time."

The bottom line: Broadband Internet carriers and content companies are moving quickly to impose tiered pricing on the Web.