FCC Chairman Kevin Martin outlined broad policies which he believe the FCC must keep in mind when considering internet service providers and their customers. The venue was the Senate Commerce Committee, and while he did not call for any new regulation, he did argue that the Commission already has the power to intercede on behalf of consumers. He also outlined some general principles.
One of these sounds very similar to network neutrality. The phrase Martin used was "content agnostic." He said ISPs are within their rights when preventing illegal content from being transported across their virtual venues; however, short of that there should be no discrimination. On the other hand, consumers need to be aware that not all types of content can be transported efficiently over all types of access frames. ISP transparency in explaining what it does and why goes a long way in getting the FCC to see eye-to-eye with a given decision.
He also said if a discrimination complaint is found to be true of a telco ISP, the same standards should apply to a cable ISP.
