Although some FCC commissioners have asserted that the agreement is not a public policy mandate, the AT&T agreement last week could serve as a blueprint for members of Congress reintroduce bills this year, notes NY Times and C/Net.
Net neutrality is the idea that network operators such as AT&T and Verizon should be prohibited from prioritizing any content or services that travel across their pipes. Proponents argue that it threatens users’ freedoms. Opponents of regulations say there’s no evidence of a discrimination problem and that new rules would stifle innovation.
AT&T agreed that for 30 months after the merger’s closure, it would not provide or sell “any service that privileges, degrades or prioritizes any packet” transmitted over its pipes based on its “source, ownership or destination.”
That description amounts to a “framework for rules that can be applied industry-wide to allow American consumers and small businesses to benefit from deployment of discrimination-free advanced networks,” U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said in an e-mailed statement on Tuesday.
Wyden, who authored the first and perhaps most aggressive Net neutrality bill to emerge last year, hopes to reintroduce his bill in similar form this January, according to an aide.
Also hoping for a late January or early February proposal are Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D. The duo teamed up in May to introduce the Internet Freedom Preservation Act, which barred network operators from making special deals with content providers and required them to offer all Internet material on an “equivalent” basis.
On the House of Representatives side, e Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., plans to reintroduce an identical version of his Network Neutrality Act, though a representative said a timetable had not been set yet. Markey, who is widely expected to be named the new chairman of a key Internet and telecommunications panel as early as this week, also plans to hold hearings on the topic throughout the spring and early summer.
With Democrats slated to become the majority in the House and, by a razor-thin margin, in the Senate when they reconvene in Washington this week, Net neutrality advocates have been hopeful that they will have more luck seeing their policy priorities translated into law.
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