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from: Reuters

US Senate's Stevens short on votes for telco bill
Tue Jun 27, 2006 6:04 PM ET

By Jeremy Pelofsky

WASHINGTON, June 27 (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens said on Tuesday he does not yet have the necessary votes to get legislation to overhaul communications laws through the full Senate.

A primary objective of the legislation is to make it easier for big telephone companies such as AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications to get a national license for offering subscription television service to compete with cable. Typically they must apply to thousands of local cities.

Stevens told reporters he had not yet secured the 60 votes needed to end debate on the Senate floor, known as cloture, and set the measure for a final vote by the lawmakers.

"We have to get 60 votes, we don't have them right now," the Alaska Republican said after a daylong committee session for amending his proposed legislation. He has predicted the panel would pass the bill.

Stevens said he would not likely get a commitment from Senate leaders to bring the measure to the floor until there was greater support and that the toughest issue facing senators was Internet service, known as Net neutrality.

"They're not going to take a month on the floor on this bill," Stevens said. "Unless we can define a period of time that we get it done, we'll not get it up (on the Senate floor) and that's defined by 60 votes."

INTERNET

The panel on Wednesday is expected to debate Net neutrality -- an issue of whether high-speed broadband Internet providers such as AT&T and cable operator Comcast Corp. should be barred from offering priority access to affiliated content or be able to charge more to guarantee service.

Internet content services like Google Inc. and eBay Inc. have expressed concerns that their content and services could be shunted into a slow Internet lane, while those affiliated companies that pay would get faster service.

AT&T and Verizon have denied they would block or impair access to the open Internet, but have said they want to use private, Internet-based networks to offer services like movie downloads.

Sens. Olympia Snowe, a Maine Republican, and Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat, plan to offer an amendment that would prevent broadband providers from giving priority to any individual company's content.

Snowe said that the debate would likely spill out of the committee and on to the Senate floor. "It won't be the end of it, it will be the beginning," she said.

It remains unclear whether the bill would become law this year, particularly since the House of Representatives passed a narrower measure and the lawmakers have a shorter legislative calender ahead of the November congressional elections.

"This bill is going to change a great deal in conference," Stevens said, referring to a group of House and Senate lawmakers appointed to work out differences between their bills.

The committee approved numerous amendments, including one provision that bars cable and video providers from charging customers an early termination fee that exceeds one month's service.

They also rejected several proposals, including one that would have preserved the right of local authorities to approve the sale or transfer of cable television assets. The draft legislation would end that practice.