Net neutrality bill falters in US Senate

Commerce committee fails to reach agreement on two-tier internet

Matt Chapman, vnunet.com 13 Jun 2006

The net neutrality bill has faltered in the US Senate after a commerce committee failed to reach agreement on the proposed legislation.

The Senate committee was supposed to put forward rules to decide how the internet could be used to offer video, voice and other real-time applications without resorting to a two-tier system based on those who can afford it and those who cannot.

Google has been championing the bill, which would stop firms offering faster download speeds to customers willing to buy services such as downloadable movies.
"One of the interesting arguments against net neutrality by the big telcos is that they want to ensure that their customers' content, such as IPTV or video, gets priority over content traffic from companies like Google, which are also planning to offer consumer video services over the internet, and will leverage the telcos' broadband connections to deliver these services," said analyst firm Ovum.

Ovum suggested that this argument is academic, because companies like Google will ultimately offer time-shifted content to set-top boxes rather than streaming or broadcasting.

US senators on the committee had wanted to include more protection for ordinary consumers in any legislation.

An agreement on the issue was expected as part of a wider communication overhaul that will also decide how mobile TV services are used.

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