Aiming to bring about a change in the way the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) defines broadband, without imposing additional regulations, the agency’s chairman Julius Genachowski will, on Thursday, lay out a roadmap for the regulation of broadband.

The FCC chairman’s decision – eagerly awaited after the last-month federal court ruling raised doubts about the agency’s authority over high-speed Internet access – will largely underline the need for adopting “net neutrality” rules, so as to mandate Internet providers, like Comcast and AT&T, to mete out equal treatment to all traffic, without the slowing or blocking of access to certain websites.

Noting that the concerns raised by the court ruling – which said that the FCC had transgressed its clout in checking Comcast for slowing Internet traffic for some customers – will be given due consideration, a recent FCC statement said that Genachowski will set “meaningful boundaries to guard against regulatory overreach.”

At present, the FCC defines broadband as a flippantly regulated “information service;” thereby giving the agency the authority to implement a all-encompassing National Broadband Plan (NBP) it released in March. One of the proposals of the NBP includes the use of federal subsidies for telephone service to pay for Internet connections.

In addition, the FCC also opines that the current regulatory framework gives it authority enough to enforce the “network neutrality” regulations, barring broadband providers from favoring or discriminating against the traffic that flows over their networks.