http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/062906O.shtml
Panel Rejects Net Neutrality
By Tom Abate
The San Francisco Chronicle
Wednesday 28 June 2006
The Senate commerce committee endorsed a sweeping overhaul of
telecommunications laws Wednesday moments after rejecting, in a
dramatic tie vote, an amendment that would have preserved the status
quo of equal pricing for all Internet traffic, an issue that has come
to be known as network neutrality.
The 15-7 final vote on the telecommunications reform bill
reflected the popularity of the measure's key provision, which is
designed to let telephone companies deliver digital video through
their wires to compete with cable television. A similar bill recently
passed the House, and congressional leaders still hope that a Senate
floor vote and a reconciliation of differences between the two
measures will send the matter to President Bush, whose signature would
be anticipated.
But just before the 22 senators on the committee endorsed the
television reforms and dozens of other changes, they deadlocked 11-11
and thus rejected an amendment that would have required the Federal
Communications Commission to write regulations to prevent phone and
cable companies from charging special fees for preferred delivery of
video content.
The coalition of Internet content companies and grassroots groups
that had campaigned for that amendment billed the tie as a moral
victory that would focus attention on the issue when the measure comes
to Senate floor.
"Every day and every week that goes by members of Congress hear
from their constituents and momentum moves in favor of net
neutrality,'' said MoveOn.org spokesman Adam Green.
Verizon, which said it needs a free hand to levy new charges on
big content providers to help upgrade Internet access to the home,
said the 15-7 vote on the final measure proved that legislators are
more concerned about unleashing competition in the paid television
market than over how to price Internet traffic.
"Net neutrality is clearly divisive and ill defined and many
senators do not want it (that issue) to stand in the way of consumer
video choice,'' said Verizon spokesman David Fish.
It wasn't immediately clear when the measure will come to the
Senate floor and, indeed, within moments of the commerce committee's
final vote, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-OR, used a parliamentary move unique to
the Senate that could effectively prevent any vote on the full bill
"until it includes strong net neutrality provisions."
-------