Washington Post reports that the FCC is to release a net neutrality rule proposal on Monday. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski will discuss the rules in a keynote speech at The Brookings Institute.

The net neutrality rule is to prevent telecomm, cable and wireless companies from blocking Internet applications. A neutral broadband network is one that is free of restrictions on content, sites, or platforms, on the kinds of equipment that may be attached, and on the modes of communication allowed, as well as one where communication is not unreasonably degraded by other communication streams.

The principle states that if a given user pays for a certain level of internet access, and another user pays for a given level of access, that the two users should be able to connect to each other at that given rate of access.

Though the term net neutrality did not enter popular use until several years later, since the early 2000s advocates of net neutrality and associated rules have raised concerns about the ability of broadband providers to use their last mile infrastructure to block Internet applications and content (e.g. websites, services, protocols); particularly those of competitors. 0 

The new FCC proposal is expected to provide additional guideline on how operators like AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast can control what goes on their networks. Internet companies like search giant Google and public interest groups have criticized the present guidelines for not clearly preventing discrimination by carriers. The new guideline is expected to correct this, preventing carriers from discriminating web content and services. 0 

The carriers are against new rules. Their argument is that they need to have the ability to manage traffic on their network to ensure some applications don’t take up too much bandwidth. This argument does not stand because the carriers can charge by bandwidth use make Web access slower for some users.