Companies reach "general agreement" on network neutrality

Apparently, companies negotiating a network neutrality compromise at the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) have reached a general agreement.

The agreement reportedly includes concessions on some of the most divisive topics in the debate, including the questions of wireless Internet, Federal Communications Commission authority, and managed services. The ITI talks include Verizon, AT&T, Skype, Microsoft, NCTA, and others. New concessions from wireless companies could mean the agreement is stricter than the Google-Verizon proposal issued this month, which exempts wireless traffic from the toughest rules. Still, it's unlikely that the companies would submit to a full non-discrimination rule for wireless services, which they see as the future of their businesses and say are technically too different from wireline services to be subject to the same rule. Various scenarios are possible for regulating wireless without applying the full weight of a non-discrimination rule and without entirely exempting them, either; the companies, for instance, could be prohibited from blocking websites but not applications, among other possible variations.