WASHINGTON -- Citing concerns over the emerging "breaks and cracks" in the open architecture of the Internet, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission today unveiled a proposal to bolster the agency's support of the core principle of Net neutrality.

Speaking at the Brookings Institution, a prominent Washington think tank, Julius Genachowski said he plans to circulate proposed rules to the commissioners that would amount to the agency's most explicit mandate of non-discrimination requirements for Internet service providers to date.

"Notwithstanding its unparalleled record of success, today the free and open Internet faces emerging and substantial challenges," Genachowski said. "We've already seen some clear examples of deviations from the Internet's historic openness."

He cited the dust-up last year that resulted in the FCC voting to rebuke Comcast for throttling traffic from the peer-to-peer site BitTorrent, and failing to inform subscribers about its network-management practices, as well as some of the recent instances of broadband providers blocking access to Internet phone applications.

Genachowski said he would propose adding two principles to the Internet policy statement the FCC adopted in 2005, which has served as its rough blueprint for handling Net neutrality disputes.

He plans to add a fifth principle to codify the requirement that ISPs do not slow or degrade transmissions of specific services or applications, and a sixth to stipulate that they disclose to consumers how they are managing their networks.

The other two Democrats on the five-person commission, Michael Copps and Mignon Clyburn, quickly expressed support of the chairman's Net neutrality proposal.

Genachowski also said he would call on the FCC to adopt the principles as commission rules, a move that would attempt to clarify the commission's authority to regulate Internet transmissions.

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