Senate panel debates its own net neutrality bill

Some Democratic lawmakers on Thursday urged a U.S. Senate committee to slow down its efforts to pass a wide-ranging broadband competition bill because of complaints from consumer groups and local governments.

The bill would streamline the local franchising process for telecom carriers to offer video services in competition with cable television. However, some Democratic members of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee complained it includes no regulations prohibiting broadband providers from blocking or slowing customer access to Web content offered by their competitors.

The lack of a so-called net neutrality provision prohibiting broadband providers from giving priority service to their own Web content prompted Democrats to call for the committee to push back the mid-June target for sending the 135-page bill to the full Senate.

"I'm much more interested in getting it right than in speed this summer," said Senator Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee approved its own telecom bill, focused on video franchising, in April, and Senate committee Chairman Ted Stevens, an Alaska Republican, said he will push forward the Senate bill, called the Communications, Consumer's Choice, and Broadband Deployment Act.

"It will pass this year," he said.

The Senate bill also attempts to stabilize funding for the Universal Service Fund (USF), which subsidizes telecom services in rural and poor areas; authorizes the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to create video and audio broadcast "flags," protection systems for Web content; and allows wireless digital devices to transmit signals over spectrum unused by television stations.

On net neutrality, the Senate bill instructs the FCC to make annual reports to Congress on the free flow of Internet information, a step back from the House net neutrality provisions that consumer groups complained were too weak. The House bill allows the FCC to investigate complaints of broadband providers blocking or impairing Web content after the fact, and prohibits the FCC from creating new net neutrality regulations.

While Thursday's hearing focused on other parts of the bill, Democratic senators said the bill needs stronger net neutrality rules. Without protections, Web content that competes with broadband providers' services will get the slowest service, said Senator Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat. A hearing on net neutrality is scheduled for May 25.

"If we don't do this right, we're going to put a lot of people in the slow lane," she said.

Republican Senators and cable TV and telecom trade groups praised the bill, saying it deregulates broadband by treating telecom and cable-based providers equally. The bill will create more competition in the video market and drive up the adoption of broadband, said Senator John Ensign, a Nevada Republican.

"There's nothing that protects the consumer more than competition," Ensign said.

But Gene Kimmelman, senior director of public policy for Consumers Union, and Michael Guido, mayor of Dearborn, Michigan, said the bill could hurt consumers. The bill takes the cable customer complaint process out of local government hands and transfers it to the "ill-equipped" FCC, and forces local governments to limit their review of video franchise requests and approve requests within 30 days, Guido said.

"This bill would do harm to citizens, consumers of these new services, and the communities in which they reside," Guido said.