Created: 9/22/2009 7:07:57 AM 
NEW YORK (AP) -- The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission has proposed the most wide-ranging and specific rules so far for regulating how Internet service providers and wireless carriers handle subscriber traffic.
The FCC has intervened a few times to discipline home broadband providers for blocking or hampering certain types of traffic. But the proposal by Chairman Julius Genachowski could result in the first solid rules. It is also aimed at regulating, for the first time, how wireless companies carry Internet traffic to cell phones.
Reactions to the ideas from Genachowski, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, broke down along partisan lines. Republican senators said there was no need for an unprecedented expansion of Internet regulation. Obama said that on the contrary, well-crafted regulation of the Internet would encourage investment and innovation.
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