Broadband vs. Open Internet, Open Internet scores a point

[Commentary] It is possible to read Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski's statement very carefully and see a distinction between Internet and Broadband that *might* be there (or it might not). If it comes through in the rules, I will be happy, because the FCC at least got started on the right foot.

For a while there it looked as if it was going to have two left feet (Broadband and InternetBroadband), and we know where that leads. I'm sure many will write that there are zillions of “loopholes” in that ruling allowing for all kinds of bad behavior by Broadband providers in the services they offer to customers. And I would tend to agree with those concerns. There is nothing that preserving a free and open internet can do, nothing at all, for many of the problems of telecom and information services in the broad sense of the term Broadband. But when those broadband providers offer a connection to the Internet, that is, when they offer the ability to access all of the services that are made available anywhere in the world from any other user or company that connects to the Internet, the rules the FCC proposes will apply. This is a good thing, in my opinion.