New bill to outlaw net neutrality 'will fail'

A proposed law that would make FCC enforcement of net neutrality more difficult looks doomed to failure

Legislation proposed by Republican senators that would effectively stop the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from enforcing net neutrality is unlikely to succeed, according to internet advocates.

The Freedom for Consumer Choice Act (PDF) was proposed by senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina and six other Republican senators.

The law would severely limit the ability of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to enforce net neutrality by thwarting attempts to reclassify internet access as a telecoms service as opposed to an internet service.

"The FCC's rush to takeover the internet is just the latest example of the need for fundamental reform to protect consumers," said senator DeMint.

"Congress must pass the Act to protect consumer choice in media services, preserve competition that drives down costs and drives up options, and prevent the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs that the free market internet economy has created."

However, the Public Knowledge think-tank in Washington believes that the proposed law is based on outdated information and will harm rather than help American consumers, and has little chance of making it onto the statute books.

"This Bill totally ignores some of the realities of the telecoms market," Art Brodsky, communications director at Public Knowledge, told V3.co.uk. "It doesn't have a good prognosis and it's not likely to get enacted anyway."

Brodsky explained that the Bill could be highly unpopular with rural voters in the proposers' states, and would eliminate the FCC's ability to enforce universal access to the internet for all Americans.

Many of the arguments for the legislation also rely on outdated or inaccurate data, and contain a broad measure of talking points supplied by the telecoms industry, according to Brodsky.

The proposed law is more about marking a political line in the sand, he said.