Genachowski laid out two new principles for addition to the FCC’s previous four which were established in 2005 in relation to Internet legalities. The list currently says the following:
1. Consumers are entitled to access the lawful Internet content of their choice.
2. Consumers are entitled to run applications and use services of their choice, subject to the needs of law enforcement.
3. Consumers are entitled to connect their choice of legal devices that do not harm the network.
4. Consumers are entitled to competition among network providers, application and service providers, and content providers.
5. Broadband providers cannot block or degrade lawful traffic over their networks, favor certain content or applications over others and cannot “disfavor an Internet service just because it competes with a similar service offered by that broadband provider.”
6.Broadband providers must be transparent about the service they are providing and how they are running their networks.
I expect there to be some legal challenges to this by the combined efforts of the telecoms… they will probably cry about the cost of expending the bandwidth to an ever “hungry” consumer market…but they are going to have to justify why Japan can offer 3 times the bandwidth I get with FIOS for less money per month. That fact is, with normal revenues they could double bandwidth on a yearly bases while still making money hand over fist.