House Subcommittee Rejects Net Neutrality Amendment

[WhiteTara]

http://news.tmcnet.com/news/2006/04/06/1546968.htm

The House Committee on Energy and Commerce’s Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet yesterday voted down a proposed amendment to a controversial telecommunications bill that would have given the Federal Communications Commission greater power to enforce “net neutrality” principles.

The Democrat-backed amendment, which was voted down by the Republican-controlled committee 8 to 23, would have prohibited network operators from establishing separate tiers of broadband service and then charging service and content providers “access fees” in order to use those tiers. The amendment also contained language that would have prohibited network operators from blocking or degrading content or communications traversing their networks.

Following the rejection of the amendment, the subcommittee approved the Communications, Promotion, and Enhancement Act 27 to 4, thus sending it on to the full committee for a vote later this month. The current version of the bill, which has already undergone several revisions, would give the FCC (News - Alert) the power to impose fines of up to $500,000, per incident, on network operators who block or degrade voice, video or data signals on their networks. It also includes a provision wherein the FCC would have no more than 90 days to adjudicate alleged acts of “discrimination.”

The amendment came after House Democrats, Internet companies and free market groups attacked the bill for failing to give the FCC enough power to uphold net neutrality principles. On Wednesday, chief executives from Amazon.com, eBay, Google (News - Alert), Microsoft (News - Alert) and Yahoo wrote a last-minute letter to the committee urging it to include stronger language upholding net neutrality principles.

Net neutrality (News - Alert) is the concept that everyone, everywhere, should have free and unfettered access to all the Internet has to offer, and that network operators should be prohibited from blocking or degrading signals or content traversing their networks. Although the bill includes provisions allowing the FCC to investigate, and act on, alleged incidents of discrimination, after the fact, it does not include hard and fast rules regarding network access. The current draft would allow network operators to establish separate tiers of faster broadband service, and would also allow them to charge service and content providers “access fees” to use those tiers for express delivery to their customers.

During a committee hearing last week, Rep. Edward Markey (D-Massachusetts), a ranking Democrat on the committee, said he was disappointed the proposed bill didn’t give the FCC more power to punish network operators who engage acts of “discrimination” by blocking or degrading others’ signals.

money rears its ugly head again.