With the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) scheduled to propose new net neutrality regulations Thursday, the much-hyped debates pertaining to the rules further ramped up on Wednesday!

The entire clamor is over two key principles that the FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski recommends for addition to the agency's Internet Policy Principles. The first principle would forbid Internet Service Providers (ISPs) from discriminating against any Internet content or applications; and the second will ensure the transparency in network management of the ISPs.

While the Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg criticized the net neutrality proposal during a Wednesday keynote, at the Supercomm 2009 conference, saying that "it fundamentally misreads how innovation happens in a dynamic and collaborative industry;" net neutrality backer Free Press disputed the oft-repeated criticism that new rules will discourage broadband investment.

Though Verizon, AT&T and other opponents of the rules, including some lawmakers, opine that the new open Internet regulation will largely affect their earning potential; the Free Press' Wednesday report suggested that net neutrality will actually help increase investment and competition online rather than thwart it.

Corroborating the suggestion with statistical facts, the Free Press research director Derek Turner, who authored the recent report, highlighted that AT&T's investments increased considerably during the two-year, post-BellSouth-merger period, beginning 2006, when the FCC subject the carrier to the net neutrality condition, asking it to operate as a neutral network.