With the FCC holding a hearing today at Harvard Law School on traffic shaping and network management, the NY Times reports the agency is "considering taking steps to discourage cable and telephone companies from discriminating against content providers" and is "considering new rules and enforcement." As we've discussed ad nauseum, the agency's current network neutrality guidelines are so flimsy that any ISP lawyer worth a damn could easily argue that everything but an outright block of a competing content provider is reasonable.Again, it should be interesting to see if the FCC's Martin is simply paying lip service, given his preference toward hands-off regulatory policy if the decision impacts baby bell operators. While it's likely the FCC boss won't impose new network neutrality rules, it's possible he could pass guidelines that force ISPs to be more transparent with the precise nature of their traffic shaping, giving broadband customers an easier time comparing providers.

Then again, the FCC could heed the call of companies like Verizon and do absolutely nothing, trusting in their claim that the ISPs themselves will do the right thing or face the competitive consequence. Of course Verizon is in the competitive sweet spot with FiOS, and doesn't thottle p2p traffic or boot high-consumption users like Comcast.