I
110th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 5353
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
February 12, 2008
Mr. Markey (for himself and Mr. Pickering) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce
A BILL
To establish broadband policy and direct the Federal Communications Commission to conduct a proceeding and public broadband summits to assess competition, consumer protection, and consumer choice issues relating to broadband Internet access services, and for other purposes.
Short title
This Act may be cited as the
Internet Freedom Preservation Act of
2008
.
Findings
Congress finds the following:
The Internet has had profound benefits for numerous aspects of daily life for millions of people throughout the United States and is increasingly vital to the economy of the United States.
The importance of the broadband marketplace to citizens, communities, and commerce warrants a thorough inquiry to obtain input and ideas for a variety of broadband policies that will promote openness, competition, innovation, and affordable, ubiquitous broadband service for all individuals in the United States.
Broadband policy
Title I of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 151 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following new section:
Broadband policy
It is the policy of the United States—
to maintain the freedom to use for lawful purposes broadband telecommunications networks, including the Internet, without unreasonable interference from or discrimination by network operators, as has been the policy and history of the Internet and the basis of user expectations since its inception;
to ensure that the Internet remains a vital force in the United States economy, thereby enabling the Nation to preserve its global leadership in online commerce and technological innovation;
to preserve and promote the open and interconnected nature of broadband networks that enable consumers to reach, and service providers to offer, lawful content, applications, and services of their choosing, using their selection of devices, as long as such devices do not harm the network; and
to safeguard the open marketplace of ideas on the Internet by adopting and enforcing baseline protections to guard against unreasonable discriminatory favoritism for, or degradation of, content by network operators based upon its source, ownership, or destination on the Internet.
.
Internet Freedom Assessment
Internet Freedom Assessment required
In general
Within 90 days after the date of the enactment of this
Act, the Federal Communications Commission (in this Act referred to as the
Commission
) shall commence a proceeding on broadband services
and consumer rights.
Specific Requirements
As part of the proceeding under this section, the Commission shall assess—
whether broadband network providers adhere to the Commission’s Broadband Policy Statement of August, 2005 (FCC 05–151), including whether, consistent with the needs of law enforcement, such providers refrain from blocking, thwarting, or unreasonably interfering with the ability of consumers to—
access, use, send, receive, or offer lawful content, applications, or services over broadband networks, including the Internet;
use lawful applications and services of their choice; and
attach or connect their choice of legal devices to use in conjunction with their broadband telecommunications or information services, provided such devices do not harm the network;
whether broadband network providers add charges for quality of service, or other similar additional fees or surcharges, to certain Internet applications and service providers, and whether such pricing conflicts with the policies of the United States stated in section 12 of the Communications Act of 1934 (as added by section 3 of this Act);
whether broadband network providers offer to consumers parental control protection tools, services to combat unsolicited commercial electronic mail, and other similar consumer services, the manner in which such services are offered, and the extent to which such services are consistent with such policies of the United States;
practices by which network providers manage or prioritize network traffic, including prioritization for emergency communications, and whether and in what instances such practices may be consistent with such policies of the United States;
with respect to content, applications, and services—
the historic economic benefits of an open platform;
the relationship between competition in the broadband Internet access market and an open platform; and
the policy choices and results of global competitors with respect to access competition and an open platform;
whether the need for enforceable rules governing openness, consumer rights, and consumer protections or prohibiting unreasonable discrimination is lessened if a broadband network provider provides significantly high bandwidth speeds to consumers; and
the potential of policies promoting openness in spectrum allocation, universal service programs, and video franchising to expand innovation through protection from unreasonable interference by network owners of an open marketplace for speech and commerce in content, applications, and services.
Public broadband summits required
In general
As part of the proceeding required under subsection (a), and within 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Commission shall conduct a minimum of 8 public broadband summits, in geographically diverse locations, around the United States. The Commission shall publicly announce the time and location of each such summit at least 30 days in advance.
Purpose of public broadband summits
Such public broadband summits shall seek to bring together, among others, consumers, consumer advocates, small business owners, corporations, venture capitalists, State and local governments, academia, labor organizations, religious organizations, representatives of higher education, primary and secondary schools, public libraries, public safety, and the technology sector to assess competition, consumer protection, and consumer choice issues related to broadband Internet access services.
Internet input
As part of the proceeding required under subsection (a), the Commission shall seek to utilize broadband technology to encourage input from and communication with the people of the United States through the Internet in a manner that will maximize the ability of such people to participate in such proceeding.
Report to Congress
Within 90 days after completing the summits under subsection (b), the Commission shall submit a report to Congress—
summarizing the results of the assessment under subsection (a), including information gained from the public summits under subsection (b); and
providing recommendations on how to promote competition, safeguard free speech, and ensure robust consumer protections and consumer choice relating to broadband Internet access services.