Committee Kills Net Neutrality Bill

The House Energy and Commerce Committee has killed an amendment designed to guarantee net neutrality. The amendment would have prevented Internet service providers from delivering different content at different speeds based on content providers’ having paid extra fees. Supporters of the amendment, including Microsoft, Amazon, and Google, argued that the Internet was built on ideas antithetical to the notion of paying fees to have content available to consumers. They called on Congress not to drop the issue but to “enact legislation preventing discrimination” against certain content providers. Opponents of the amendment, including cable and phone companies, suggested that the landscape of online content, including such material as movie-quality video, could be available to consumers if content providers paid a surcharge for it. Joe Barton (R-Tex.), chairman of the committee, commented that net neutrality is “still not clearly defined” and that he doubts the dire predictions of the amendment’s supporters.

ZDNet, 26 April 2006