The New Year will see a bill introduced to the US senate that would enshrine network neutrality into law, barring internet service providers (ISPs) from filtering the parts of the web their customers can access.
Senator , a North Dakota Democrat, says such a law is essential to prevent ISPs from discriminating against certain internet content in their own interest.
The net neutrality fight pits ISPs like AT&T and Verizon against content companies like Google and Apple. ISPs say they need freedom to manage the ever-growing traffic on their networks without government interference.
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But content companies say that ISPs hold too power much to block or slow down traffic as they wish. For example, by slowing down bandwidth-hogging movie downloads, or preventing users accessing certain content for commercial reasons.
Presidential push
President-elect Barack Obama promised legislation on net neutrality during his campaign. The big Democrat election win adds momentum to the cause, says a Dorgan advisor.
Dorgan has been influential on the issue to date, and will be among the highest ranking Democrats on the Senate鈥檚 Commerce Committee when it reconvenes in January.
AT&T says that the US communications regulator, the Federal Communications Commission, already has enough power. 鈥淭he current principles already deal with unreasonable discrimination,鈥� says Jim Cicconi, AT&T executive vice president for regulatory affairs.
Protecting consumers
He points out that fellow ISP Comcast was recently ordered by the FCC to stop 鈥渢hrottling鈥� file-sharing traffic between users on its network.
The public would not pay for its internet services if AT&T discriminated against content, he added. 鈥淲e鈥檇 be shooting ourselves in the foot.鈥�
But supporters of net-neutrality legislation say that consumers need full legal protection. Such legislation will become more likely if Comcast successfully sues the FCC over the recent decision, experts say.
鈥淭he telephone and cable companies say trust them,鈥� said Markham Erickson, director of the , a trade group that lobbies for net neutrality, with members including companies like Google and eBay. 鈥淲e will trust but verify.鈥�
