[Infowarrior] - Net Neutrality Compromise Being Weighed by U.S. Lawmakers

[Richard Forno]

Net Neutrality Compromise Being Weighed by U.S. Lawmakers

By Todd Shields - Sep 23, 2010 12:00 AM ET Thu Sep 23 04:00:01 GMT 2010

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-22/congress-said-to-seek-net-neutrality-compromise-for-u-s-fcc.html

Federal Communications Commission, FCC, chairman Julius Genachowski has said he may claim power using rules written for monopoly telephone service in the 20th century. Companies led by AT&T and Verizon oppose such action. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

U.S. regulators would get authority over Internet-traffic practices of companies such as AT&T Inc. and Comcast Corp. for two years in a plan being weighed by congressional staff, two people involved with the talks said.

Legislation letting the Federal Communications Commission regulate Internet service providers was being discussed with industry representatives yesterday by aides to Representative Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, according to the people, who asked not to be identified discussing the private talks.

The two years would give the FCC and Congress time to permanently resolve a long-running fight over rules on net neutrality. Internet-service providers would be barred under such regulations from selectively blocking or slowing content going to subscribers while favoring their own offerings and those of business partners.

The compromise would let the FCC claim authority over Web service delivered over wires, such as by cable and fiber-optic lines, while allowing the agency to write less-stringent rules for wireless services such as mobile phones, the people said.

Google, operator of the most-used Internet search engine, and Verizon Communications Inc., the second-largest U.S. phone company after AT&T, proposed in August that providers of wired Internet service be barred from unreasonably slowing or speeding Web content. Their proposal contained two exemptions: It wouldn’t apply to unspecified “additional services” developed in the future or to Internet service over wireless devices.

The Google-Verizon proposal was rejected by net-neutrality advocates such as the Washington-based group Free Press. 

Comcast Ruling

The FCC’s authority has been under question since a federal court in April said the agency lacked authority to censure Comcast for its Web practices. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has said he may claim power using rules written for monopoly telephone service in the 20th century. Companies led by AT&T and Verizon oppose such action.

Any compromise would need to satisfy service providers including the telephone companies, Comcast and Time Warner Cable Inc., and Internet and technology companies such as Amazon.com Inc. and Sony Corp., Rebecca Arbogast and David Kaut, analysts with Stifel Nicolaus & Co., said in a Sept. 21 note to investors.

It will be difficult “to thread such a narrow needle” before lawmakers leave Washington to campaign for the Nov. 2 election, perhaps as early as next week, Arbogast and Kaut said in their note. Efforts could continue after the election, “but the momentum may be lost,” they said.

Karen Lightfoot, a spokeswoman for Waxman, a California Democrat, didn’t reply to telephone and e-mail inquiries.

To contact the reporter on this story: Todd Shields in Washington at tshields3 at bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Larry Liebert at lliebert at bloomberg.net.