New Net neutrality proposal planned for January
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Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) had hoped to introduce a new bill this month, but staffers say hectic events forced him to push back those plans until early next year.
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The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is taking the middle ground in the net neutrality debate.
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(InfoWorld) - The U.S. Congress adjourned Friday without passing a much-debated broadband bill or strengthening network neutrality rules. The wide-ranging broadband bill would have streamlined the franchising process that telecom companies such as AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. need to go through to offer Internet Protocol-based television service in competition with cable TV. But advocates of net neutrality rules pressed Congress to hold on to the broadband bill unless it included a provision prohibiting broadband providers from blocking or slowing competing Internet content. Congress' failure to pass the broadband bill "shows the power of the issue with net neutrality," said Jim McGann, spokesman for the It's Our Net Coalition, a group calling for a net neutrality law. "Some lawmakers ignored net neutrality at their peril." Democrats take control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives when Congress reconvenes in January, and the prospects for a wide-ranging broadband bill may be diminished. Republicans have generally pushed for the bill, while many Democrats raised objections based on concerns about the lack of net neutrality rules and about provisions that they said would allow the telecom providers to skip poor areas with their new television services. The House version of the broadband bill would have required VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) providers to offer customers enhanced 911 emergency dialing service, and it would have allowed municipal governments to offer broadband data and video services. The Senate version would have permanently extended a tax moratorium on Internet-only taxes such as access taxes. Net neutrality advocates will continue to press Congress to pass a law protecting open access on the Internet, McGann said, although he declined to speculate on its chances in the new Congress. "We're going to, as much as we can, educate members about the issue," he said. The broadband bill will also lose a major champion in Congress next year. Verizon, one of the large broadband providers pushing for streamlined video franchising rules, will refocus its efforts on state legislation next year, a company spokesman said. Verizon is also watching the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which may also act on broadband regulations, said David Fish, a Verizon spokesman. "The federal campaign raised the issue to a higher visibility," Fish said. "We've made big strides toward video choice this year, and expect continued progress in 2007." Beyond the broadband bill, some tech groups said Congress' post-election lame-duck session produced mixed results. In its final days, Congress approved an extension of a R&D (research and development) tax credit, which allows U.S. companies to get a tax break of up to 10 percent of R&D spending. The credit expired in 2005, and many tech groups called on Congress to reinstate it so that the U.S. could stay competitive with other countries offering R&D tax breaks. Congress approved an extension through the end of 2007, even though some tech groups want the tax credit to be made permanent. Congress also approved an expansion that could add US$1 billion to $2 billion to the program, which has cost about $7 billion a year. Tech groups applauded the extension of the R&D tax credit, as well as Congress' decision to extend permanent normal trade relations to Vietnam. The R&D tax credit action was "long overdue," said William Archey, president and chief executive officer of AeA, a tech trade group. But groups representing large tech vendors complained that Congress failed to increase the 65,000-person limit for H-1B visas, the program used to hire highly skilled foreign workers. Congress also failed to make changes to the U.S. patent system, although many large tech companies want improvements in the quality of patents and a weaker patent enforcement system. By failing to act on H-1Bs, patents and a fiscal year 2007 budget, Congress "ultimately failed to make the grade,â Phil Bond, president and chief executive officer of the Information Technology Association of America, said in a statement. Tech worker groups have opposed expansion of the H-1B cap above the current 65,000 visas a year, saying many U.S. tech workers remain out of work. Small inventors have opposed many changes to the patent system, including a tech-backed proposal to make it tougher for investors to get court injunctions against accused patent infringers.
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(InfoWorld) - Timothy Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, advocated that the U.S. Congress protect net neutrality and questioned the value of DRM (digital rights management) Thursday. Berners-Lee, speaking before the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet in the U.S. House of Representatives, said it was "very, very important" for lawmakers to protect the ability of users to access the Web content they want regardless of their ISP. Berners-Lee didn't endorse specific net neutrality proposals largely supported by congressional Democrats, but he said the Web as a communications medium deserves "special treatment" to protect its nondiscriminatory approach to content. While he was growing up in the U.K., there were high penalties for interfering with mail delivery because mail was one of the main ways to communicate, Berners-Lee said. Now, the Web is a major communications medium worthy of protections, he said. One company or country shouldn't control access to the Web, he added. "We are a society only in as much as we are individuals communicating," said Berners-Lee, founder of the World Wide Web Consortium and author of the first version of HTML. For the past two years, many e-commerce companies and consumer groups have called on Congress to pass a law prohibiting broadband carriers from blocking or slowing Web content from competitors or from speeding up partners' content. In mid-2005, the U.S. Supreme Court and the Federal Communications Commission freed broadband providers from nondiscriminatory carriage rules, and net neutrality backers say large broadband providersÂ like Verizon and ComcastÂ will now be tempted to provide tiered speeds based on which Internet companies pay them the most. Broadband providers and many Republicans have opposed a net neutrality law, andÂ efforts to pass one failed in a Republican-controlled Congress in 2006. Democrats took over Congress this year. While Berners-Lee didn't hear a lot of opposition to his net neutrality comments at the hearing, Representative Mary Bono, a California Republican, challenged his assertion that DRM copy protections could hinder the growth of some parts of the Web. Berners-Lee called for open standards instead of closed DRM technologies. Instead of DRM, copyright holders should "allow people to do the right thing" by providing the information on how to legally use the material, he said. Bono questioned if his idea would prevent mass stealing of copyright materials. "Is that not the equivalent of having a speed limit but not enforcing the speed limit?" she asked. But Berners-Lee suggested DRM limits the market for digital music downloads, echoing recent statements by AppleÂ CEO Steve Jobs. "What is the enforcement for speeding?" he said. "The enforcement for is not that the car grinds to a halt. [Instead of DRM] I'm inclined to make software to allow people to do the right thing first." But Bono said strong protections for digital content are needed. "With great respect to Steve Jobs, he's trying to sell hardware, first and foremost," she said. "I wonder if he would feel the same way about his patents being on the Internet free of patent protection."
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CHICAGO - Plans to blanket cities across the nation with low-cost or free wireless Internet access are being delayed or abandoned because they are proving to be too costly and complicated.
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Legislation designed to prevent  broadband Internet providers from unreasonable interference  with subscribers' access to content was introduced on Wednesday  by a senior U.S. lawmaker.
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(InfoWorld) - Google has formed a political action committee to exert pressure on the U.S. Congress and promote legislation that benefits the company. The group, called Google NetPAC, saw the light on Thursday, when Google registered it with the U.S. Federal Election Commission, a Google spokesman confirmed via e-mail. "Google NetPAC will support officeholders and candidates who share Google's goal of preserving and promoting the Internet as a free and open platform for information, communication, and innovation," the spokesman wrote. A key legislative and regulatoryÂ concern for Google is net neutrality. Its executives favor a law to force broadband providers like AT&T and Comcast to give all traffic on their networks the same quality of service and speed. In addition to Google, other Internet companies like Yahoo, eBay, and Amazon.com support net neutrality andÂ want Congress to prohibit broadband providersÂ from blocking or degrading Web content and services from potential competitors. Opponents, which include broadband providers and network equipment vendors like Cisco Systems and Qualcomm, say a net neutrality law will let Internet companies like Google continue toÂ ride for "free"Â on broadband networks. Such a law will prevent broadband providers from charging Web companies new fees for higher speeds and a better quality of service, money needed to build faster networks for new bandwidth-intensive services like Internet TV, net neutrality opponents say. If companies like Google don't pay extra, then broadband providers will have to increase fees to consumers, they say. Other regulatory and legislative issues that are likely of concern for Google include Internet privacy, stock-option accounting, law-enforcement access to search engine records and copyright protection. Google also hired former Republican senators Dan Coats and Connie Mack as outside lobbyists, the Google spokesman confirmed. "We've hired outside firms from across the political spectrum that offer effective expertise to communicate our policy messages," he wrote. Other high-tech companies with political action committees include Microsoft, Yahoo, Amazon.com, eBay and AOL's parent company Time Warner.
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A new battle of technologies may be in the offing in the 802.11n arena as 12 key companies have developed a key proposal to counter another one announced last week that is backed by a group of top wireless players.
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Plans for valuable wireless spectrum being considered by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission may not go far enough to encourage a new broadband competitor, said groups calling for open-access rules for part of the spectrum.
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Comcast's response yesterday to its public thrashing by the FCC may have had a second, more important, purpose: A prominent Congressman has introduced legislation paving the way for a ban on Internet throttling.
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Networking technology turned out to be one of the more interesting stories in 2007. Jon Oltsik offers a look ahead to the new year.
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(InfoWorld) - Two important votesÂ concerning San Francisco's plan for citywide Wi-Fi that were set for this week have been pushed back, delaying what may be life-or-death decisions on the controversial network. One vote of the city's fractious Board of Supervisors could force the project to undergo an environmental impact study. The other, by the board's Budget and Finance Committee, would reject the plan or send it on to the full body for final approval. Hanging in the balance is a proposal that was introduced by Mayor Gavin Newsom in 2004 and has become one of the major initiatives of his administration. As the votes were pushed back, Board President Aaron Peskin was preparing a set of amendments to theÂ contract hammered out by the city and EarthLinkÂ in January. Those changes aim to address concerns of some critics but may not win over vocal opponents on the board. San Francisco is one of many municipalities pursuing wireless networks to make Internet access more widely available, both to close the technology gap between richer and poorer residents and to boost the local economy. Its contract calls for EarthLink to offer 1MbpsÂ service for about $20 per month and GoogleÂ to offer a free service on the same network. Activists and some leaders in the city have raised alarms that echo worries in some other cities, such as how well the network will perform. They have also raised issues that are specific to San Francisco. For example, Google's proposed free service has come under particular fire for allegedly threatening users' privacy and being too slow, at 300Kbps. In one local twist, the San Francisco Neighborhood Antenna-Free Union (SNAFU) has appealed an April decision of the city's Planning Commission that exempted the network from environmental review. SNAFU, which has fought the placement of cellular base stations near schools, hospitals and some other sites, says Wi-Fi access points on light poles could harm residents' health. It will be up to the Board to force the review or let the exemption stand. At a pro-Wi-Fi rally outside City Hall on Tuesday, Newsom and other speakers called for quick approval of the project and scoffed at the environmental concerns. Newsom called the environmental question "a canard." Citywide Wi-Fi is critical to minority communities that lack Internet access and is being fought mostly by people who have it, speakers at the rally said. Leslie Rule, an educational technologist at local public broadcaster KQED, said she had read all of SNAFU's appeal of the Planning Department's decision. "They're worried about things that don't exist," she said. The rally brought together multiple groups from minority communities and drew about 100 protestors waving "Wi-Fi Now" signs. Peskin's proposed amendments, not yet spelled out in detail, include contract terms that would force EarthLink to serve all parts of the city and would boost the speed of the Google service to 500Kbps and protect users' privacy. They also would limit the term of network deal, under which the city would lease its light poles to EarthLink for placement of radios, to eight years and give the city the right to then buy the network. In general, the proposals are things the city tried to get during its own negotiations with EarthLink, said Brian Roberts, a senior policy analyst at the city's Department of Telecommunications & Information Services, which negotiated the deal with EarthLink. The city chose to try to conclude the talks and get the network built rather than press for every term it wanted, he said. "If Supervisor Peskin can get them, God bless him," Roberts said. Peskin said via e-mail on Tuesday that EarthLink had not yet responded to the proposed changes. If Peskin can work out terms he likes with EarthLink, the contract is likely to pass through the Budget and Finance Committee, on which he serves. But on the full board, some long-time opponents question the amendments and other members are also waiting to see more details. Â
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Alternative form of high-speed Internet access makes its way to U.S. homes.
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A Democratic lawmaker on Wednesday proposed legislation to stop network providers from playing traffic cop on the Internet.
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Time Warner Cable will try selling consumers broadband service based on how much bandwidth they use, a move that could turn the home broadband pricing model in the U.S. on its head.In a trial planned for later this year in Beaumont, Texas, the service provider will offer four tiers of service at different prices. Customers who used more bandwidth would pay more.The details of the tiered pricing plan haven&#39;t yet been set, according to Time Warner spokesman Alex Dudley. The offer will only go out to new customers, he said.Some service providers charge different rates based on the speed of a service, but in the U.S. they typically allow each customer to send and download as many bits as they like in a month. Under that model, some subscribers who exchanged large files through peer-to-peer services reportedly have been cut off. Comcast, the biggest U.S. cable operator, has said it&#160;sometimes slows peer-to-peer traffic&#160;during peak demand periods.In some other countries, Internet users have long endured bandwidth caps. And Web hosting companies typically charge site owners based on how much data they exchange with visitors.Tiered pricing could help settle the ongoing argument over the fairness of certain subscribers and online content providers using up more network capacity than others, according to Ovum analyst Mark Seery. In fact, he thinks the whole industry will go down this path eventually.&quot;It&#39;s difficult to charge, appropriately, different customers if they have such widely divergent uses of bandwidth,&quot; Seery said. And trying to target one type of application, such as illegal peer-to-peer file sharing, raises political issues, he added.&quot;There&#39;s no justification for blocking legitimate uses of peer-to-peer,&quot; Seery said. &quot;The right focus is on who&#39;s using what [bandwidth] and what they should be charged for it.&quot;Many other transport industries, such as shipping, rail and courier services, charge different rates based on how much the customer uses, Seery said. Some have shifted to that system over time. For example, toll bridge operators once charged trucks based on the value of what they wanted to carry over, and U.S. railroads could arbitrarily carry goods from one customer and not from another, according to Seery. Neither model lasted.Time Warner operates in 33 states but is a relative underdog in the U.S. broadband industry, with 7.4 million high-speed data customers. Comcast has 12.9 million.&#160;
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After tossing WiFi start-up bids for exclusive control of fallow spectrum, federal regulators want public input on how to proceed. Will a new fight over "open access" rules emerge?
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Proposed law could prevent the government from offering broadband access.