Senate Panel OKs Troubled Telecom Bill

A Senate committee Wednesday approved a wide-ranging telecommunications bill designed to increase high-speed Internet access, but the legislation’s future is in jeopardy because of a bitter dispute over rules to assure data will continue to flow freely.

The stalemate over allowing phone and cable companies to charge websites for faster delivery of video and other data-heavy applications was clear when the Senate Commerce Committee deadlocked on a plan to prohibit those so-called Internet toll lanes.

The 11-11 vote killed the proposal, but the issue, known as network neutrality, drew enough support to threaten passage of the first major telecommunications legislation in a decade.

The bill would eliminate most state and local regulations covering cable TV and cellphone service in hopes of spurring competition to expand the fiber and wireless networks to deliver it. The centerpiece is a plan to make it easier for phone companies to offer TV service by letting them get national franchises rather than seeking the approval of each community they want to serve.

Supporters hope the lure of packaging voice, video and data will lead phone companies to spend more on their networks and force cable TV providers to do the same. California is considering joining several states in offering statewide TV franchises for the same purpose. The federal legislation would override those efforts.

Some phone company executives have said they want to pay for their new wires by charging premiums for higher-speed service. Fearing they’ll be relegated to the Internet’s slow lane if they don’t pay up, Google Inc., Yahoo Inc., Microsoft Corp. and other major Internet companies -- joined by many online activist groups -- have pushed Congress to prohibit preferential treatment of data.

“This is about who’s going to control the Internet of the future,” said Sen. Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine), a leading supporter of requiring equal treatment for all data. “Broadband operators will be able to pick winners and losers.”

All of the committee’s 10 Democrats supported her plan Wednesday to add rules prohibiting discriminatory treatment of data by network providers. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) warned that the proposal’s failure would lead to a “massive fight” -- and Democrats may have the numbers to block the bill from reaching the full Senate.

The bill passed the committee, 15 to 7.

Republican supporters warned that including the anti-discriminatory rules would doom the bill as well. The House defeated a similar proposal, 269 to 152, this month when it passed its own telecommunications bill.

“This is absolutely a poison pill the House will not accept,” Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) said. He and other Republicans argued that new regulations would stifle the expansion of the Internet.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) vowed to try to revise the bill to get the 60 votes needed to overcome a likely Democratic filibuster. But he acknowledged that he did not have those votes yet and that the earliest the bill could be considered would be September, when lawmakers would be eager to avoid controversial issues so they could go home to campaign for reelection.

Stevens pleaded with his colleagues Wednesday that the bill must be passed this year to help the U.S. raise its low ranking in worldwide high-speed Internet penetration and make other important telecom reforms.

Stevens created a much broader bill than the House, betting that a slew of additional provisions important to various senators would draw enough support to pass it. Among them: new anti-piracy measures on digital TV and radio signals known as “broadcast flags”; a three-year moratorium on new cellphone taxes; a permanent extension of the current moratorium on Internet access taxes; $1 billion to help firefighters and other emergency personnel communicate better; and expansion of the Universal Service Fund, which helps extend telecommunications services to rural and low-income areas.