The FCC chair, Julius Genachowski is planning to announce new rules for network neutrality today. It's expected to be a compromise position, one that doesn't allow Internet providers to control where customers go via a heavy-handed pricing scheme that charges higher rates for some types of content but one that does allow the companies flexibility in dealing with traffic congestion. It's also likely to set up different rules for wireless providers, who have more bandwidth issues.
The problem is that many communities without broadband Internet access are adopting, on a large scale, mobile services, and that's primarily how they access the Web. Those communities are primarily poor, especially poor people of color who live in cities where access to data is an important equalizer. While broadband and wireless are different, we have to keep in mind that the communities who rely on them need equal access to the Internet. Here's hoping the rules, which are due to be voted on by the end of the year, take that into account.
-- Monica Potts
