Net Neutrality -- The Morning After

[Commentary] It's The Morning After for Big Telecom, and it ain't pretty. For the past dozen years or so, under deregulatory Democrats and compliant corporate Republicans, Big Telecom has written telecommunications policy, starting with the Telecom Act in 1996 and continuing in a pretty much unbroken streak, until very recently. They are used to winning, and winning big. And Thursday, they lost as the Federal Communications Commission approved a proceeding to write Network Neutrality rules. This morning, they are sitting around at the teleconferences and meeting rooms saying, "I can't believe that Genachowski actually did it. He actually did it." Meaning that FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, barely four months in office, carried out a campaign pledge that he helped write to secure for us and our posterity an open, non-discriminatory Internet. Of course, all of their legions of lawyers are going over the Net Neutrality notice with a fine-tooth comb, telling their bosses how this language really is a win, and how that loophole can be exploited. They may even be right. There is some language in the proposed rules that Big Telecom should like.