Network Neutrality Groups Push for FCC Action to Buck GOP Tide

With the patience of his natural allies wearing thin, and a hostile new Congress taking over in January, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski is under intense pressure to make good on his and President Obama's pledge to force fairness rules on the nation's Internet service providers.

But to do so, Chairman Genachowski will have to buck a Republican-controlled House and unilaterally move to undo Bush-era deregulation. He has few options in order to restore and extend so-called network neutrality -- the principle that Internet providers shouldn't pick favorites on the web, control what software people use, or discriminate against rival content. The network neutrality debate has become a flash point for the broader discussion about how the Internet will be regulated and how services like web phone calls and streaming video will be treated.

Public interest groups are cautiously hopeful that Genachowski will act before the new Congress is seated, at which time the environment for the FCC and net neutrality advocates will become much more difficult. But network neutrality isn't even on the agenda for November -- the FCC meets once a month. That means the agency has one shot, the December meeting, to make it so. The agenda for December should be public by Nov. 24. That's cutting it very close, but interest groups that want the FCC to assert itself aren't giving up hope -- at least not publicly.