Bipartisan Video Franchising Bill Passes Subcommittee 27-4

$500,000 fines for broadband providers that thwart competition

WASHINGTON – High-speed Internet providers that block their competitors’ Web sites would face stiff new penalties under bipartisan legislation adopted Wednesday by the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet. The subcommittee voted 27-4 to approve the bill, which will encourage more competition and lower prices for broadband, video and Internet-based phone services.

The Communications Opportunity, Promotion, and Enhancement Act of 2006, authored by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton, R-Texas, and U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., would establish fines of up to $500,000 per incident to discourage broadband Internet providers from trying to get a leg up on their competition by blocking lawful Internet content or applications.

The bipartisan legislation will expand competition between broadband providers by creating a national process that allows telephone carriers to offer a TV service very similar to cable. Another provision will expand competition between Internet-based telephone services, commonly know as “VoIP,” and traditional telephone services.

U.S. Reps. Fred Upton, R-Mich., chairman of the subcommittee, and Chip Pickering, R-Miss., the full committee’s vice chairman, also co-authored the bill.

Specifically, the Barton-Rush legislation would:

• Create a national approval process, known as a “franchise,” for telephone carriers and cable providers that offer subscription television.
• Improve competition between VoIP Intenet-based telephone services and local telephone services.
• Require cable and telephone companies to offer broadband services without requiring consumers take telephone, television or other services the provider offers.
• Establish penalties of up to $500,000 for broadband providers that block lawful content. The Federal Communications Commission would have, for the first time, explicit power to go after companies that violate network neutrality principles.
• Allow localities to retain control of their rights-of-way and ensure local jurisdictions still receive the franchise fees they collected under the current system.
• Require broadband operators take additional steps to ensure their networks aren’t used to transmit child pornography.

The bill’s next step is consideration by the full House Energy and Commerce Committee. A full committee markup has not yet been scheduled.

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