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Congress Wrestles with Net Neutrality

By Martin H. Bosworth
ConsumerAffairs.com

May 3, 2006

Net Neutrality • Internet Providers Ponder Bandwidth Limits For Heavy Users • Comcast, Cox Caught Blocking BitTorrent • Will Antitrust Law Save Net Neutrality? • Few Are Neutral in Net Neutrality Battles • Net Neutrality Supporters Testify • Comcast Blocks Public From FCC Hearing • Congress Gets Net Neutrality Legislation • Time Warner To Test Metered Pricing For Broadband • House Committee To Probe FCC • FCC To Investigate Comcast For Blocking Net Traffic • Verizon Wireless Opens Network to All Devices, Software • Comcast Sued Over Internet Blocking • Verizon Overrides Internet Searches With Its Own Results • Comcast Blocks Subscribers From Some Services • Verizon's Abortion Block Raises Net Neutrality Concerns • FTC Nixes Net Neutrality • Wireless Spectrum May Hold Key To Net Neutrality • Telcos Lift Block On FreeConference.Com • FCC Takes Another Look at Net Neutrality • AT&T Blocks Calls To Competing Conference Call Service • Study: Ending Net Neutrality Would Hurt Consumers • FCC, FTC Challenged To Protect Net Neutrality • Net Neutrality Back on Congress' Agenda • Net Neutrality Opponents Step Up PR Blitz • AT&T Trumpets New TV Service • Verizon Joins BellSouth in Retreat From Unexplained New DSL Fee • FCC Nudges BellSouth Into Giving Up New DSL Fees • FTC Head Urges "Caution" On Net Neutrality • Net Neutrality May Derail Telecom Bill • Google: No Net Neutrality Means Antitrust Fight • Senate Prepares for Net Neutrality Showdown • Congress Moves Quickly To Satisfy Telecoms' Net Neutrality, Cable Entry Demands • Net Neutrality Gets Its Day In Congress • Net Neutrality Wins Committee Vote In Congress • Net Neutrality Attracts Surprising Allies • Congress Wrestles with Net Neutrality

Net neutrality, the principle that all content on the Internet can be accessed equally, received both a boost and a setback in Congress this week, as both the House and Senate introduced new legislation that could affect how consumers access the Web in virtually every way.

After the House Commerce Committee voted 34-22 to defeat an amendment protecting Net neutrality from being added to new telecommunications legislation, House Judiciary Committee chair F. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) and Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) asked for a referral of the legislation in order to add language that provides much stronger protection for net neutrality in the law.

Whereas the current Commerce bill, sponsored by Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), would grant authority to the FCC to handle disputes involving blocked access to Web content, the Sensenbrenner-Conyers draft would transfer authority to the Justice Department's antitrust division.

Sensenbrenner achieved dubious fame last year for refusing to grant hearings on waiving the effects of the new bankruptcy laws in order to offer relief to victims of Hurricane Katrina.

More recently, he authored a controversial immigration bill that would have made felons out of illegal immigrants, as well as anyone who might offer them assistance.

The Sensenbrenner-Conyers draft is one of several competing bills proposed by Congressmen in order to address the Net neutrality issue. Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), who sponsored the defeated Net neutrality amendment to the Barton bill, introduced his own "Network Neutrality Act of 2006" on the House floor on May 2nd.

In his statement advocating the bill, Markey said that "Broadband network owners should not be able to determine who can and who cannot offer services over broadband networks or over the Internet."

"The Network Neutrality Act of 2006 offers [Congress] a clear choice," Markey said. "It is a choice between favoring the broadband designs of a small handful of very large companies, and safeguarding the dreams of thousands of inventors, entrepreneurs, and small businesses."

New House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) said that full votes on the Barton telecom legislation will not be on the floor this week, due in part to the rising amount of public concern regarding net neutrality.

"Sweeping Changes"

Meanwhile, Senate Commerce Committee Chair Ted Stevens (R-AK) introduced yet another version of updates to the 1996 Telecommunications Act on May 1st.

The Senate bill, while containing sweeping and far-reaching changes to laws on everything from recording television shows to broadband taxation, has no provisions for ensuring equal access to Internet content.

Among the Stevens bill's offerings is the power for municipalities to run their own broadband networks, without having to seek permission from states to do so, and increased collection for the Universal Service Fund (USF), which provides funding for low-cost broadband services to rural American communities, including many in Alaska.

As in the House, the Senate bill faces many obstacles to passage. Stevens' own co-sponsor, Sen. Daniel Inouye, expressed "numerous, substantive objections to the bill in its current form."

Several Senators, including Olympia Snowe (R-MI) and Byron Dorgan (D-ND) have introduced bills designed to codify the principles of net neutrality into law, with the expectation that they will be addressed in any update of telecom legislation.

Members of both parties have expressed increasing nervousness about making changes to laws that deal with Internet access in such close proximity to the Nov. 2006 Congressional elections. The net neutrality issue has exploded into mainstream awareness and provoked intense scrutiny as to how telecom companies intend to control Internet service.

The "Save The Internet" coalition, a broad alliance of bloggers, consumer groups, academics, and special interests across the political spectrum, has delivered 500,000 petition signatures to Congress advocating protection of equal Internet access since its launch on April 24th.

Wu, a coalition charter member, told Slate magazine that the "meritocratic" design of the Internet would be irreparably harmed by centralizing access control in the hands of a few large telecom companies.

"When who you know matters more than anything, the market is no longer meritocratic and consequently becomes less efficient," Wu said. "At the extreme, a market where centralized actors pick favorites isn't a market at all, but a planned economy."

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