In New York, for example, Council Member Gale Brewer held a hearing on Nov. 20 calling on Congress to pass Internet non-discrimination principles, called net neutrality, into law. The idea is to prevent Internet service providers from blocking or interfering with certain types of traffic, such as Web-calling service Skype.

While, following regulatory battles of the past several years, service providers like Comcast already largely comply with these net neutrality principles, there are plenty of carriers that don't. The FCC is currently considering whether to apply net neutrality principles to wireline and wireless service providers, some of which do block certain kinds of traffic. The agency is facing lots of opposition from the industry: Wireless net neutrality could prove to be the biggest regulatory battle to hit Washington in years. And every supporter -- such as some of the nation's largest cities -- counts.

On the eve of a Federal Communication Commission vote that will start the formal process of imposing network neutrality rules on Internet service providers, the seemingly united front of the big telecommunications companies is showing cracks. The big development was a joint statement by Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam and Google CEO Eric Schmidt expressing their commitment to the idea "that the Internet remains an unrestricted and open platform" and pledging to work together to find common ground on the issue.

The shift is more symbolic than substantive. Google and Verizon still differ sharply on the question of how neutrality rules should apply to wireless services. And shortly before the Schmidt-McAdam statement was released, Ivan Seidenberg, CEO of Verizon Communications, which owns 55% of Verizon Wireless, attacked "proponents of net neutrality [who suggest] that network providers like Verizon and applications providers like Google, Amazon and others occupy fundamentally different parts of the Internet ecosystem - a binary world of 'dumb pipes' on the one hand and 'smart applications' on the other." (Courtesy of FierceWireless.)

In its latest salvo, AT&T has fired off another letter (PDF) to the FCC's Wireline Bureau pointing out that by blocking calls to certain rural telephone exchanges, Google is stopping Google Voice users not only from calling free teleconferencing services and sex chats, but many other destinations including a Benedictine convent and a tribal community college.

In its latest salvo, AT&T has fired off another letter (PDF) to the FCC's Wireline Bureau pointing out that by blocking calls to certain rural telephone exchanges, Google is stopping Google Voice users not only from calling free teleconferencing services and sex chats, but many other destinations including a Benedictine convent and a tribal community college.

The best answer, of course, would be for Congress to give the FCC the authority to enforce neutrality rules. Representative Rick Boucher (D-Va.), chair of the House subcommitte on technology, communications, and the Internet, seems to be ready to step to the plate.