Two legislators have reintroduced a bill that would ban Internet fast lanes, calling on the FCC to adopt their positions as the agency considers net neutrality rules.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, and Rep. Doris Matsui, D-California, are bringing back the Online Competition and Consumer Choice Act, which they first introduced last year. As we wrote, Leahy at the time called net neutrality an online bill of rights: The Internet needs concrete, fundamental protections to ensure that it is not abused by those with the power to do so.
Our economy and the Internet ecosystem cannot afford pay for priority schemes or Internet fast lanes. Paid prioritization is simply a tax on innovation and consumer choice, Matsui said in a press release today.
Net neutrality, the principle that all online traffic should be treated equally, is also bound to come up this afternoon during a talk by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Last year, Wheeler proposed rules that among other things would have made fast lanes — in which companies pay broadband providers a toll to ensure fast, smooth delivery of their services to consumers — officially OK. The proposal attracted a record number of public comments to the FCC, with everyone from individuals to tech companies and other businesses weighing in. Critics said the proposed rules did not protect net neutrality. Also weighing in was President Obama, who s pushing for reclassification of broadband as a utility, so that it can be more tightly regulated. The issue has become a political hot topic, with Republicans largely against net neutrality rules, especially reclassification.
The bill written by Leahy and Matsui, and co-sponsored by Sen. Al Franken, Rep. Anna Eshoo and others, does not call for reclassification.
The Federal Communications Commission is scheduled to vote on what are likely to be reworked net neutrality rules Feb. 26.
Photo: Protesters hold a rally on May 15, 2014, at the FCC offices in Washington, D.C., to support net neutrality. (Karen Bleier/AFP/Getty Images)
