The U.S. House of Representatives has defeated a provision to require U.S. broadband providers to proffer the same speed of service to contender that ’s useable to collaborator , a major frustration to a coalescency of online companies and consumer groups .
The 269 - 152 House voting against the so - call net neutrality amendment late Thursday came after a last - minute pushing for the measure from many technology company . After the House defeated the nett disinterest amendment , it passed the rudimentary bill , a widely - ranging broadband greenback focused partly on speeding the roll - out of telly over Internet Protocol .
Without a nett disinterest law , the Internet will turn into a two - tiered internet in which the fastest speed are reserved for content produced by the large broadband providers and companies that pay supererogatory fee , last disinterest backer said . Customers who need to go to Web content from competing Internet companies will terminate up in a “ slow lane , ” net neutrality backers said .
“ It is a ignominy that the House turned its back on the open inwardness of the Internet , ” Gigi Sohn , president of consumer right hand group Public Knowledge , said in an east - mail . “ or else , the House … voted to allow the telephone and cable company to discriminate by control the subject matter that will menstruate over the mesh . ”
The Senate is presently debating its own broadband and telecommunication reform bill , but the current interpretation does n’t include a net neutrality prerequisite . Lawmakers have introduced four place upright - alone net disinterest neb , but the licking in the House could mean the issue is dead until 2007 .
big broadband providers such as AT&T and Verizon Communications opposed a net neutrality law , saying it would get unneeded regulation to the Internet . There ’s petty evidence of broadband providers blocking or impairing competing content , they said .
executive with AT&T and BellSouth Corp. in late month have also talk of new stage business plans that would allow them to bill cyberspace companies extra for faster speeds . Broadband supplier want young ways of paying for the cost of progress next - generation broadband networks , and charging expectant cyberspace caller make the most sense , they order .
“ two-way mutual sense get ahead out over the bottom lines of a few heavy on-line companies , ” Mike McCurry , co - president of the Hands Off The Internet alliance , said in a instruction . “ They would dramatically careen the cost of building tomorrow ’s Internet onto the backs of consumers . ”
The underlying broadband bill , the Communications Opportunity , Promotion , and Enhancement Act , passed by a vote of 321 - 101 . The bill would let the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to investigate complaints about broadband provider draw a blank or impairing of Internet content only after the fact .
The eyeshade also streamlines local franchising requirements for telecommunication carriers that desire to offer IPTV services in rivalry with cable TV . The bill in substance make a national franchise , allowing AT&T and Verizon to roll out their IPTV service without going through lengthy franchising negotiations with each local government where they require to provide service .
Verizon praised the House transit of the bill . It will bring “ more choice , good services and lower Mary Leontyne Price ” to consumers , the companionship say . The company also cheered the frustration of the net neutrality proviso , allege Congress “ wo n’t go down the road of legislating solutions to problems that do n’t exist . ”
Several tech and consumer groups had engaged in a last - minute lobbying campaign for a net disinterest provision . Members of TechNet , a trade chemical group representing technical school vendor aged executive , sent a missive to members of the House Thursday urging support for last neutrality . Among those signalize the letter of the alphabet were executive director with eBay , Microsoft , and the Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers adventure capital firm .
Without final neutrality , small companies that ca n’t afford to pay extra broadband fee wo n’t be able to compete for customers , said John Doerr , a partner in the influential venture Washington firm . “ The telephone and cable giants want to be able to impart a surcharge on , ” he said Thursday . “ We have to work hard to make trusted there ’s not that secernment . ”
