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from: Ars Technica

Strict Net neutrality passes House Committee, but fate is rather uncertain

5/25/2006 7:36:30 PM, by Ken Fisher

The House Committee on the Judiciary today approved the Internet Freedom and Nondiscrimination Act (HR 5417) in a vote of 20-12. This particular 'Net neutrality bill would make it an antitrust violation to "block impair, discriminate or interfere with anyone’s services or applications or content," but the bill also addresses service improvements on top of the status quo. If a provider were to offer increase VoIP performance, for instance, the bill would require such providers to prioritize or offer enhanced quality of service "to all data of that type... without imposing a surcharge or other consideration for such prioritization or enhances quality of service."

This two-pronged approach has been dubbed "strict" 'Net neutrality by some, inasmuch as it not only outlaws service degradation, but would also prevent service providers from selling Quality of Service (QoS) to consumers.

Opponents of the bill continue to insist that 'Net neutrality is a non-issue (again), as they continue to argue that innovation and competition should be left alone. "We are optimistic that the majority in Congress will see this legislation as an attempt to solve a problem that does not exist," said Tim McKone, AT&T executive VP for federal relations.

Proponents of the bill lauded its measures while casting doubt on the idea that "competition" would provide consumer protection. "The lack of competition in the broadband marketplace presents a clear incentive for providers to leverage dominant market power over the broadband bottleneck to pre-elect, favor or prioritize Internet content over their networks," said Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-WI).

The fate of the bill is not clear, as there are now two competing bills vying for the attention of the House floor. HR 5252, the Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement Act, was overseen by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and is expected to be considered by full House. That bill is seen by some proponents of 'Net neutrality as being too weak, particularly after a Committee vote tossed aside an amendment put forth by Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) that would have enshrined the principle of network neutrality into US law. There is speculation that today's bill, HR 5417, could be proposed as an amendment to HR 5252.

To make matters more confusing, the vote in the House Committee on the Judiciary may have also been affected by a contest between that committee and the Energy and Commerce Committee over just who has the authority to address this matter. The latter committee would prefer to see the FCC investigate allegations of abuse, but there are concerns that Energy and Commerce Committee could effectively assert control over potential FCC investigations by acting as a gatekeeper, thereby reducing the role of the Judiciary Committee members on a matter that some see primarily in antitrust terms.