The open Internet rulemaking process began when the FCC issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on October 22, 2009.

The public now has several months to comment on the proposed draft rules, as well as the questions and issues raised in the NPRM. The first round of comments is due by January 14, 2010, and reply comments are due by April 26, 2010. In addition, the FCC will seek input on open Internet issues through public workshops.

After reviewing the public’s comments, the FCC may decide to adopt open Internet rules, which would require a vote of the FCC’s five Commissioners.

More information on how FCC proceedings work in general can be found here and here.

The proposed draft rules are available on the Commission’s website in PDF or Word format.

You can also download the entire NPRM and read statements by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, and Commissioners Michael Copps, Robert McDowell, Mignon Clyburn, and Meredith Atwell Baker.

The FCC released the NPRM on October 22, 2009. Comments can be filed until January 14, 2010, and reply comments may be filed until April 26, 2010. After the FCC has received the public’s input, it will review the comments and decide whether to adopt rules to protect the open Internet.

The FCC is taking unprecedented steps to ensure that the rulemaking process is fact-based, engineering-driven, and open to the public. The Commission put forward actual draft rules in the NPRM for public input; has created a Technical Advisory Process to ensure that the rulemaking is based on a sound, technical understanding of the relevant issues; is harnessing the power of the public to participate via the Internet through OpenInternet.gov; has asked that commenters support their views with facts, data and specific examples; and is hosting a series of public workshops on key issues.

The staff of the FCC will host a series of public workshops addressing key issues in the open Internet rulemaking.  For example, the FCC has planned an initial round of workshops including sessions on the impact of the open Internet on speech and democratic engagement; how the Internet’s openness affects innovation and investment; and the open Internet’s benefits for consumers, including the role of transparency in empowering consumers. These workshops will open up the rulemaking process and allow the public to see the debate as it unfolds. They will also allow the public to participate by suggesting topics and questions, as well as by commenting on the workshop discussions.

The workshops are called "staff workshops" because FCC staff is running them and they are designed to be more like an informal discussion than a formal hearing at which FCC Commissioners preside.

Yes, both in person and over the Internet. Live video links for each workshop will be available by going to workshops and clicking on the workshop title.

The "open Internet" is the Internet as we know it. It’s "open" because it uses free, publicly available standards that anyone can access and build to, and because it treats all traffic that flows across the network in roughly the same way. This means an innovator in a garage or a student in a dorm room can easily invent and launch a new online service, and that content from a small business or a blogger can reach customers and audiences as easily as content from a multinational corporation or a major newspaper. Once you’re online, you don’t have to ask permission or pay tolls to broadband providers to reach others on the network. If you develop an innovative new website, you don’t have to get permission to share it with the world. Many believe that this freedom to communicate and innovate without permission is a big cause of the Internet’s remarkable success.

Under the draft proposed rules, subject to reasonable network management, a broadband provider:

1. would not be allowed to prevent any of its users from sending or receiving the lawful content of the user's choice over the Internet;
2. would not be allowed to prevent any of its users from running the lawful applications or using the lawful services of the user's choice;
3. would not be allowed to prevent any of its users from connecting to and using on its network the user's choice of lawful devices that do not harm the network;
4. would not be allowed to deprive any of its users of the user's entitlement to competition among network providers, application providers, service providers, and content providers;
5. would be required to treat lawful content, applications, and services in a nondiscriminatory manner; and
6. would be required to disclose such information concerning network management and other practices as is reasonably required for users and content, application, and service providers to enjoy the protections specified in this rulemaking.

The draft rules make clear that broadband providers can take reasonable action to manage congestion; address traffic that is harmful to the network or unwanted by users, such as spam; and address the transfer of unlawful content, such as child pornography, and the unlawful transfer of content, such as a transfer that would infringe copyright. Further, nothing in the draft rules supersedes any obligation a broadband provider may have – or limits its ability – to deliver emergency communications, or to address the needs of law enforcement, public safety, or national or homeland security authorities, consistent with applicable law.

No. In fact, the purpose of the open Internet proceeding is to put in place high level, flexible "rules of the road" for the "access ramps" to the Internet to ensure that no one – including the government and the companies that sell Internet access – restricts innovation on the Internet.

In 2005, the FCC issued an Internet Policy Statement that affirmed the FCC’s commitment to the norms of openness that have helped the Internet flourish since its beginnings. The proposed draft open Internet rules are intended to codify the principles affirmed in the Statement and to codify two additional principles – (1) nondiscrimination ("Subject to reasonable network management, a provider of broadband Internet access service must treat lawful content, applications, and services in a nondiscriminatory manner."), and (2) transparency ("Subject to reasonable network management, a provider of broadband Internet access service must disclose such information concerning network management and other practices as is reasonably required for users and content, application, and service providers to enjoy the protections specified in this part.").

The NPRM that the Commission is considering explains that the FCC’s goals are to promote innovation and investment; promote competition for Internet access and content, applications, and services; address the needs of law enforcement and public safety; and protect users’ interests in consumer protection, the development of tools that empower users, democratic discourse and participation. An additional key rationale for acting at this time is to provide greater predictability for all stakeholders regarding federal policy in this area.

Yes. Recognizing that the proposed framework needs to balance potentially competing interests while helping to ensure an open, safe, and secure Internet, the draft rules would permit broadband Internet access service providers to engage in reasonable network management, including but not limited to reasonable efforts to address congestion and protect against traffic that is harmful to the network.

The proposed draft rules would apply to all platforms for broadband Internet access, including wireless Internet access. This proposal is based on the belief that consumers should have the same freedoms and choices no matter how they access the Internet.

But the proposed draft rules "acknowledge that technological, market structure, consumer usage, and historical regulatory differences between different Internet access platforms may justify differences in how we apply the Internet openness principles to advance the goals of innovation, investment, research and development, competition, and consumer choice." The Commission is seeking comment through this rulemaking on how to apply the six principles to wireless networks.

The proposed draft rules are intended to preserve – not change – the open Internet by maintaining the freedom and autonomy that consumers have enjoyed throughout the Internet’s history to use the Internet as they wish. In fact, one of the primary reasons for the open Internet proceeding is to preserve consumer choice.