Handicapping Senate Telecom Bill

HANDICAPPING SENATE TELECOM BILL
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
There is no timeline for the Senate's markup of an omnibus telecommunications reform bill, though it can be expected to be considered in the next two or three weeks. Senate staffers were busy working on draft language of its version over the Easter break. Issues likely to be addresses in the bill include video franchising reform, network neutrality language, municipal broadband, universal service, and allowing unlicensed wireless devices in so-called "white spaces" in the broadcast band. "Possibles" are a broadcast flag digital content-protection scheme, protection of kids from Internet content, and DTV-related items that had to be stripped from DTV hard date legislation that passed earlier in the year, like cable's downconversion of a DTV signal and the outlines of a consumer education campaign on the Feb. 17, 2009 switch to a digital TV transmission standard.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6327594?display=Breaking+News