julius genachowski

One day after Congressional Republicans killed compromise legislation that would have protected net neutrality -- the principle that broadband providers shouldn't play favorites with Web content -- pressure has returned to the Federal Communications Commission to act on the issue.

The Federal Communications Commission is poised to open up a new chunk of wireless spectrum that could soon be used to blanket small towns with wireless signals. The FCC is expected to vote on Sept. 23 to open up the unlicensed spectrum between TV channels for public use.

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.

Four Democratic lawmakers have blasted the net neutrality compromise put forward by Google and Verizon. "Americans online experience shouldn't be dictated by corporate CEO's," said Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA). Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) warned against "'cable-izing'" the Internet.'"

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.

Public interest groups kept up their assault on the FCC's closed-door broadband policy meetings after the agency decided to bypass standard disclosure rules, effectively shutting out the public. One group took out a full page ad in The Washington Post blasting the meetings.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski on Thursday will announce a regulatory "third way" to preserve net neutrality, promising "a path forward for the Commission to address serious legal issues" raised by a recent court ruling that threw the agency's broadband regulatory authority into doubt, according to a senior FCC official.

Imagine being asked to solve a problem so difficult that the smartest people you know have been trying to figure it out for months, even years, without getting anywhere. Now imagine doing it with one metaphorical hand tied behind your back. That gives you an idea of the challenge Steven Waldman...

There's been a lot of talk recently about the Federal Communications Commission's newly proposed broadband rules. But one little matter seems to have been lost in the hubbub: the pending litigation between Comcast (CMCSA), the nation's largest cable company, and the FCC over the commission's...