FCC adds two new network neutrality principles

Posted by Kalyan Medapati Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009

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In a speech yesterday at Brookings Institute Chairman Genachowski proposed two new network neutrality principles, “non discrimination of content on the Internet” and “transparency in how operators manage traffic on their networks”.

The non-discrimination principle bars the operators from shaping the Internet traffic in favour of one Internet application over another. But this however allows enough space for the operators to manage traffic to cope with network congestions. Operators need not be picky about particular applications on their network to avoid congestions, they can target users who tend to generate disproportionate amount of traffic. This makes it fairer, since it only controls disproportionate usage but not choice.

The transparency principle provides consumers much needed information on how their connection is managed by the operator, whether their choice is being tampered or not, and likely guides them with the limitations on their service.

As someone in the post speech panel discussion said, this is a common sense approach, protects consumer choice and openness of the internet, which is key to a lot of innovation. Once the rules are established, there will be profound implications for the industry, particularly for VoIP on wireless networks and thus on voice services in general. And in addition the new rules will have a bearing on IPTV services which compete with “over the top content” for video audience on high bandwidth next generation networks.