In a valentine to the cable and telephone businesses, Senator John Ensign (R-NV) introduced a bill today that almost completely frees broadband service providers of regulations, and goes even further: the bill allows broadband providers to block access to content if the content “is inconsistent with the terms of such service plan of such consumer including applicable bandwidth capacity or quality of service constraints.”
Among the many deregulatory provisions in the bill, this stands out as the most controversial given that it seems to imply that cable companies and phone companies can start leveraging their broadband platforms to block the delivery of video and other high-bandwidth content. Cable operators have long contended that streaming video and other bandwidth-intensive services hog the network and lower quality of services.
The bill also has a lot of other goodies in it. Among other things it:
— Bars Federal, State or local authorities from regulating rates, terms, price or quality of any communications services.
— Bars any authority from requiring facilities-based communications service providers to provide third parties with access to its facilities, or regulation the rates, terms and conditions of privately negotiated access deals.
— Eliminates the need for any video carrier to obtain a state or local franchise to offer service.
— Removes any build-out requirements on any video network provider.
— Maintains the existing 5% fee paid by cable operators to local authorities for the use of rights-of-way.
— Requires state and local governments to meet a host of requirements if they wish to offer communications services or networks. Among these requirements is the launch of a open-bidding process and in the case of a tie, the non-governmental bidder is always considered to be the better choice.
It’s no surprise that both cable and phone companies, heated rivals in the marketplace, have joined hands in praising the bill. NCTA CEO Kyle McSlarrow said in a statement
We commend Sen. Ensign for crafting legislation that seeks to promote competition and innovation and treats like services alike. Consumers benefit when market forces are allowed to work and all providers, regardless of technology, can compete in the marketplace without government policies that pick winners and losers.
Herschel Abbot, Bell South VP of Government Affairs, echoed McSlarrow’s sentiment. In a statement he said:
The Ensign proposal would bring telecommunications law up to date so that consumers can make their own decisions in the marketplace free of the heavy hand of government. When enacted this bill will enhance the deployment of broadband, bring more jobs and investment. It will speed the deployment of competitive video services and provide, at last, vibrant competition in video. Technology will flourish and consumers will be the winners.
Cynthia Brumfield at 4:43 PM|Comments(0)
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