The Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday put out a long-awaited proposal for network neutrality. Calling the proposed framework "basic rules of the road to preserve the open Internet as a platform for innovation, investment, job creation, competition, and free expression," FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said that they will keep "corporate gatekeepers," i.e., broadband providers, from prioritizing access to content.

The proposal falls short of the network neutrality safeguards that consumer advocates sought--and to some degree expected--out of the Obama government. (The FCC is an independent agency, which answers to Congress.) There had been hope among many consumer advocates that Genachowski's FCC would move broadband service into the same class as traditional telecom services, giving it clear-cut authority to regulate in this area.

As GigaOm's Stacey Higginbotham points out, the proposed rules would pave the way for broadband providers to charge for Internet access on a usage basis. Metered pricing could lead to higher prices and hamper innovation, she writes, because of less-than-robust competition in broadband services market, which she calls "the elephant in the room."

"[I]n the broadband arena where there is little competition among providers and a tendency to avoid investment in networks because of pressure from Wall Street and (again) a lack of competition, usage-based pricing could lead to expensive broadband and stifle burgeoning technologies such as online video and HD video conferencing," Higginbotham writes.

Wireless broadband gets off with little regulatory impact in the proposal, propelling Nate Anderson at Ars Technica to write, "Throttle away, mobile broadband providers!" The proposal would require wireless providers to be transparent about traffic management and not block traffic outright.

The proposal is weaker than many expected out of this FCC, but it is not necessarily going to be a shoe-in. The two Republicans on the five-member commission have already voiced opposition, calling the proposal "reckless," reports Cecilia Kang at The Washington Post. With Republicans soon to be in charge of the House of Representatives, the proposal, if adopted, would likely be challenged by lawmakers.

The commission plans to vote on the proposal at its monthly meeting, scheduled for Dec. 21. 

For more:
- see FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski's blog post
- see Stacey Higginbotham's post at GigaOm
- see Nate Anderson's post at Ars Technica
- see Cecilia Kang's post at The Washington Post

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