MidContinent's Simmons Praises Net Neutrality Bill

Cable operators are squarely behind the Republican draft of new network neutrality legislation, at least if the Senate testimony of MidContinent senior VP Tom Simmons is any indication.

Simmons' prepared testimony for the Senate hearing on the bill — he is the cable witness — says the draft would establish basic principles of fairness, and "set this country on a path to regulatory certainty and stability that would incite the broadband deployment that invigorates our American economy."

He said many of the bill's provisions — no blocking and no paid prioritization (except potentially for specialized services) — simply reflect what ISPs are already doing, which is what ISPs had said about the FCC's original open Internet rule.  FCC chairman Tom Wheeler's signal that he is likely to reclassify broadband under some Title II rules this time around is what prompted Republicans to draft the bill, which among other things would prevent reclassification.

For the full story go to Multichannel.com.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.