The US Federal Communications Commission has halted talks on net neutrality proposals with industry players after failing to reach a consensus on the regulations. The regulator was holding closed-door meetings with companies such as Verizon, AT&T, Google and Skype, as well as public-interest groups, to try and broker a deal on accepted practices for internet traffic management. Sources familiar with the discussions at the FCC told the Washington Post that reports of a deal between Verizon and Google on net neutrality upset participants in the meeting, who were moving closer to agreement on stronger rules against blocking and slowing traffic on mobile and fixed networks. Eddie Lazarus, the chief of staff to the chairman of the FCC, confirmed the talks have stopped, saying "it has been productive on several fronts, but has not generated a robust framework to preserve the openness and freedom of the internet". Meanwhile Google and Verizon issued statements denying a New York Times report that said Google was in talks over paying for priority carriage on Verizon's network. Verizon said the article was "mistaken", and Google said there were no discussions on paid carriage. Separately Bloomberg reported that the two companies had reached a deal to maintain net neutrality on fixed-line networks but not on mobile networks.
