By Peter Kaplan
Committee
Committee chairman John Conyers, a Democrat from Michigan,
said the bill he and California Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren had
introduced would require U.S. broadband providers to operate
their networks "in a reasonable and nondiscriminatory manner so
that all content, applications and services are treated the
same and have an equal opportunity to reach consumers."
"If we allow companies with monopoly or duopoly power to
control how the Internet operates, network providers could have
the power to choose what content is available," Conyers said in
a statement.
Verizon spokesman David Fish responded in a statement,
saying such a bill would be "tough sell" in Congress.
"Broadband deployment is a bright spot in the U.S. economy
that provides high paying jobs, unprecedented infrastructure
investment, and innovation. Why would Congress want to
jeopardize all that with this bill?" Fish said.
At issue is the so-called "network neutrality" controversy
that pits open-Internet advocates against some service
providers, who say they need to take reasonable steps to manage
ever-growing traffic on their networks.
Some of network neutrality complaints have centered on
charges that broadband companies were engaged in
anti-competitive conduct, while others involved charges of
political censorship.
The net neutrality issue has been spotlighted by a series
of incidents in which network operators, such as Comcast Corp
and Verizon Wireless were accused of hindering certain online
data moving over their networks, such as file-sharing or
text-messaging.
Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon
Communications Inc and Vodafone Group Plc.
In February the chairman of a House Energy and Commerce
subcommittee introduced separate legislation that would require
regulators at the Federal Communications Commission to study
the network neutrality issue and hold public hearings.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has said that his agency was
ready, if necessary, to step in and stop broadband providers
from interfering with users' access.
(Editing by Carol Bishopric)
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