We want to be very, very clear: the FCC’s regulatory role should be narrow and firmly bounded. Network neutrality rules should be limited to specific prohibitions—such as blocking, discrimination among applications and prohibiting special access fees—potentially combined with a renewed “open access” requirement that would foster local competition, and no more.

Luckily, the FCC has a way to bind itself and thereby limit its own regulatory reach. It’s called “forbearance.” While forbearance doesn’t set the limits on the regulatory agency in stone as Congress could, it does require the FCC to make a public commitment that is difficult to reverse. If it ever wants to change course, it has to engage in a contentious and tedious public process of notice and comment. We’ll have more to say about these very basic regulations in our comments on the FCC’s proposed rules, which we will also unpack in upcoming posts.