Moves to extend internet regulation in the US will stifle future web video innovation, it was claimed today.

Scott Cleland, chairman of net neutrality forum NETcompetition.org, urged the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet to promote free-market policies designed to expand high-speed broadband deployment and refrain from Federal or State regulation.

Cleland believes that the future demands on internet capacity from applications including online video and gaming will require a robust, higher-capacity internet that will only develop if the government allows the free market to continue to spur investment and innovation.

"The internet is the greatest deregulation success of all time. As a result of free-market competition, broadband speeds, capacities and functionalities have increased dramatically and broadband companies have incentives to invest heavily to enable internet video," he said.

"Pre-emptive and unwarranted restrictive regulation, like 'net neutrality', would destroy current market investment incentives to keep the internet dynamic, fast and productive.

"Members of the House Telecommunications Subcommittee should remember that the free market has made the internet what it is today and that internet policy should promote investment rather than discourage it."