By Michael Martinez
(Thursday, May 17) A comprehensive telecommunications bill making its way through the New York Legislature also includes language to mandate the equal treatment of high-speed content on the Internet.
The so-called network neutrality provision is part of a proposal, A.B. 3980, to overhaul the state's video-franchising rules by allowing service providers to seek statewide deals. The legislation also would establish a state broadband development authority.
Under the bill, broadband providers could not block, impair or discriminate against high-speed content or interfere with user access. The measure would effectively block network operators from charging content providers premium rates.
Because the legislation has combined several large telecom issues, some stances on the measure have become more complicated.
Pete Sikora, a political coordinator for the Communications Workers of America, said in a recent blog post at the Albany Project that the bill is "the greatest thing since sliced bread" and that it would be good for communications workers and consumers.
But Sikora said CWA still opposes the measure's network neutrality language. "Truth be told, I don't really know what people mean when they say 'net neutrality' anyway," he said.
At the Democratic blog MyDD, Nancy Scola recommended "tweaking" the New York bill to conform to a definition of net neutrality outlined in the recent AT&T and SBC Communications merger. She said the debate over the New York bill may be an opportunity to make better sense of CWA's overall stance on net neutrality.
"What's frustrating is that in so much that involves telecom and media policy, the goal of some seems to be to obfuscate and fuzzy the picture until most normal people throw up their hands and move on to something else," she said.
Network neutrality has been debated primarily at the federal level, but it is not a completely new issue for some lawmakers in New York. While serving as the state's attorney general, now-Gov. Eliot Spitzer wrote to Congress in support of net neutrality legislation. The New York City Council also is considering a net neutrality resolution.
The issue is gaining steam in other states as well, despite concerns that state-level solutions could be pre-empted by federal law. Lawmakers in Maine are debating stand-alone network neutrality legislation. That bill is being backed by several nationwide advocacy groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and Common Cause.
Net neutrality efforts in Maryland and Michigan during the past year were derailed.
The Internet search firm Google was part of a coalition that unsuccessfully lobbied for net neutrality language to be added to a statewide video-franchising measure that eventually was signed into law by Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm.
Maryland Delegate Herman Taylor offered a broadband measure earlier this year that included a nonbinding net neutrality provision but pulled it amid complaints about that part of the bill.
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