FCC opens formal discussion on Net Neutrality, encounters telecom backlash

The New York Times reports that the Federal Communications Commission has voted unanimously to begin formally discussing the net neutrality rules that Chairman Julius Genachowski proposed in late September. Net neutrality would prohibit network discrimination of data transmission across wired and wireless networks.

The federal regulator will allow three months for comment, and already a backlash has erupted from telecommunication companies and others against the policy. The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg slammed the decision, calling it a "mistake, pure and simple" to impose regulation on Internet traffic. AT&T, too, has launched a campaign against the policy.

Yesterday Verizon Wireless and Google issued a joint statement encouraging the debate over network neutrality regulation, as we reported. Though both companies expressed differences, they said in the statement that they agreed on many issues, promoting the unrestricted and open platform that has driven innovation on the Internet.

A group of 30 business investors, including parties involved with Google, Flickr, Daily Candy, and others, strongly supported the FCC's proposed rules in a letter to the commission sent Wednesday. [via Phone Scoop]