• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, April 8, 2009

This morning, the Federal Communications Commission officially commenced efforts to develop a national broadband plan.

"We begin at last to do what we should have done years ago -- make a plan for how the United States becomes the world's broadband beacon," acting chairman Michael Copps said in a statement released today.

The FCC "seeks to be open, inclusive, out-reaching and data-hungry," Copps said. The agency will look at the current state of broadband -- including availability and pricing -- and examine how to deal with potential pitfalls. "Ensuring broadband openness, avoiding invasions of people's privacy and ensuring cybersecurity are three such challenges that come immediately to mind," he stated.

While that all sounds good, it's hard to know what Copps means, given that lawmakers, consumer advocates, advertisers, broadband providers and others can't agree on what constitutes an invasion of privacy, or what makes a network open. For instance, ad companies, ISPs and consumer advocates take a very different view of whether deep packet inspection violates Web users' privacy. Last year, some ISPs started selling information on users' online activity to the ad company NebuAd -- spurring Congressional condemnation, even though the data was supposedly anonymous. The pressure proved too much for NebuAd, which retreated from its plan.

As for openness, it's clear that the FCC and Internet service providers haven't seen eye-to-eye in the past. In 2005, the agency issued a policy statement endorsing net neutrality principles, including the principle that consumers should be able to access all lawful content and applications.

But some ISPs took the position that the principles were more suggestions than mandates and proceeded to throttle certain types of traffic. In the most famous example, Comcast slowed down peer-to-peer traffic, without informing users in advance.

Last year, the agency sanctioned Comcast, but no sooner did the FCC arrive at a decision than new threats to people's ability to use the Web emerged. Consider, Cox recently said it will prioritize "time sensitive" traffic while slowing down other, less urgent material. The time-sensitive traffic includes instant messaging and email, while the susceptible-to-delay category includes peer-to-peer protocols.

Then there are also economic threats to people's ability to use the Web. Consumers already tend to pay between $40 and $60 a month for unlimited (more or less) bandwidth. But Time Warner and other Internet service providers are now exploring metered plans, where people who use more bandwidth would have to pay higher fees.

Time Warner argues the plan is fair, but it's obvious that the company has an interest in discouraging people from spending time online -- where they can watch online video for free rather than pay for cable subscriptions.

Of course, the Web offers more than just entertainment videos. Copps in his opening statement pointed out the myriad other uses of broadband -- including distance learning, telemedicine networks and a nationwide public safety system. All of those benefits will require that consumers have access to bandwidth at affordable prices. Currently, many people only have a choice of two ISPs -- their cable company or telecom. Until there's more competition, consumers' ability to access bandwidth at reasonable prices isn't likely to improve.