Google-Verizon net neutrality

Amid a fierce clash over the Net's next era, tech titans Google and Verizon crafted their own broadband policy plan and shined a light on what might be Washington's most ineffectual regulator -- the FCC. Unknown to many, Google and Verizon worked on that plan since fall of 2008.

Lobbyists from some of the largest U.S. technology companies are meeting behind closed doors in Washington with telecom giants to discuss net neutrality, following the failed FCC talks and Google's bilateral deal with Verizon. No surprise, public interest groups weren't invited.

While often well-intentioned, the agency has watched its own "open Internet policy" slowly, but systematically, crumble over the last five years. Now under Julius Genachowski, the FCC faces an almost no-win situation regarding net neutrality.

The two companies were on opposite sides of the net neutrality debate. So they initiated talks aimed at coming up with a compromise where some progress could be achieved in the face of FCC and congressional inaction. For Google, it's a lesson in growing up.

Google and Verizon drew lots of criticism last week with a Web-traffic pact rumored to favor higher-paying providers. Now, the companies have unveiled a proposal that pays homage to the concept of net neutrality, at least in the short term.