On Monday, a coalition of Silicon Valley executives sent a letter to Genachowski applauding his proposals and praising the virtues of the open Internet. The letter -- signed by Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Craigslist founder Craig Newmark, IAC Chairman Barry Diller, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, and about a dozen other company heads -- followed a more detailed letter by Internet luminaries led by Vint Cerf, who is currently on staff with Google.

Meanwhile, AT&T executives called on employees to participate in the debate by posting comments on the FCC's blog. With all that back and forth, "It's really hard to tell how this will flush out," said Tim Bajarin, principal strategist with Creative Strategies. "The telecoms have the strongest lobbyists in the industry. The telecom concerns will be heard. With AT&T urging its employees to do this viral communication, that story will be heard."

Ultimately, this week will not provide final answers but only better-honed questions, Bajarin added. "They'll probably bring more key questions to the table and fine-tune the arguments. Nothing will be decided this week."

Tech Leaders Praise Open Internet

The technology leaders said the industry has "been able to develop new online products and services with the guarantee of neutral, non-discriminatory access by users, which has fueled an unprecedented era of economic growth and creativity."

"An open Internet fuels a competitive and efficient marketplace, where consumers make the ultimate choices about which products succeed and which fail. This allows businesses of all sizes, from the smallest startup to larger corporations, to compete, yielding maximum economic growth and opportunity," the executives said.

On Friday, self-described "Internet pioneers" Vint Cerf, Stephen Crocker, David Reed, Lauren Weinstein, and Daniel Lynch -- who all started working on the Internet in the 1960s -- expressed concern that the Internet remain "both open and robust."

'Myths' About Network Management

Genachowski's principles of non-discrimination and transparency are "necessary components of a pro-innovation public policy agenda for this nation," the pioneers said, adding that the agency should pursue a "data -driven, on-the-record proceeding to consider all of the various options." (continued...)

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