Verizon Seeks Change to House Internet Language

VERIZON SEEKS CHANGE TO HOUSE INTERNET LANGUAGE
[SOURCE: Reuters]
You know, Verizon said Tuesday, we've been writing these new telecom laws for you and we just realized, whoops, we have a small revision or two... The House telecom bill aimed at making it easier for Verizon and AT&T to get into the subscription television business isn't as easy as they's like. The House measure codifies "Network Neutrality" principles that the Federal Communications Commission adopted last year and encourages high-speed Internet service providers to ensure that consumers can freely surf the Internet. But Verizon's Tom Tauke, speaking at Pike & Fischer’s 2nd annual Broadband Policy Summit, said those principles suggest consumers are entitled to Internet access and competition, which he said could lead to price controls and other regulations by an aggressive regulator. "The spirit of the FCC language is fine but taking that language and putting it in the statute, and the subsequent litigation that might result from that, I think is problematic," Tauke said. "So we encourage Congressman Barton and others to do a little careful drafting of that language so that you have language that is more appropriate for statute, which doesn't invite so much litigation down the road," he said. Similar legislation in the Senate calls for study of the net neutrality issue, a position that Tauke said his company embraced.
http://asia.reuters.com/business/newsArticle.aspx?type=ousiv&storyID=200...

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