WASHINGTON—The Senate Commerce Committee passed its sweeping telecommunications-reform bill Wednesday. The bill includes two critical bits of legislation for the wireless industry: wireless pre-emption and a moratorium on cell-phone taxes.
The bill is now headed to the Senate floor. However, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who is not a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, threatened to filibuster the bill because the bill does not include strong net neutrality language.
Under Senate procedure, a senator can filibuster—talk until an item is withdrawn—unless 60 members vote to stop the filibuster, a process known as invoking cloture. Thus, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), the sponsor of the bill, must now get 60 senators to vote against Wyden’s filibuster in order to move the bill onto the Senate floor.
“The major telecommunications legislation reported by the Senate Commerce Committee is badly flawed,” Wyden said. “I would object to a unanimous consent request to the Senate proceeding with this legislation until a provision that provides true Internet neutrality is included.”
That there is opposition to the bill comes as no surprise. Stevens has been saying for days that he likely would have to gather 60 votes to get the bill onto the Senate floor.
“You don’t buy votes. You create a feeling of comfort, and I don’t think there’s any member that won’t feel comfortable with this bill. The question is whether we can get people to realize that it should be done now. There’s a lot of people who think we ought to wait until next year. We’ve got two years in this bill and I think this bill is absolutely necessary to make the changes that are in it,” Stevens told reporters late Tuesday. “We’re not going to take a month on the floor on this bill. Unless we can define a period of time that we can get it done, we will not get it up. And that’s defined by 60 votes. If we can get 60 votes, we’ll get it up and get it out.”
The telecom-reform bill currently preserves wireless pre-emption and includes a moratorium on cell-phone taxes. Wireless trade association CTIA said it will work with Stevens to get the bill passed.
Wyden’s argument against the bill centers on net neutrality. Network neutrality generally refers to the ability to run any application or connect any device to the communications network. For content providers, it means not being required to pay pipe owners to have their content carried or given priority. Some pipe owners (cable, telecom and wireless carriers) have said they would like to prioritize packets so they can manage their networks effectively. Network-neutrality proponents warn that this is code for creating two Internets; one with premium content paid for by both the consumers and content providers, and the one that exists today. Left out of this debate is the recognition that wireless already prioritizes and restricts content.
Network neutrality has emerged as the key battleground for telecommunications-reform legislation with nothing less than the future of the Internet at stake. Proponents believe that a two-tiered Internet will stifle innovation and opponents believe they need to operate their networks as they see fit.
