Passions are sure to be high with the reintroduction of net neutrality legislation by Sens. Snowe (R-Me.) and Dorgan (D-N.D.) Tues. The Internet Freedom Preservation Act requires broadband providers to treat equally all content, applications and services on the network, without giving preference through commercial deals, and to prevent users from connecting devices to the network only if they “physically damage or substantially degrade the use” of the network by other users. The bill also prohibits providers from selling broadband only with other services, such as phone or cable, from the provider. It sets a 90-day limit for the FCC to handle complaints, and 6 months from enactment for the agency to set up rules governing complaints. A Dorgan spokesman told us the bill is identical to one introduced last Congress. The Internet has succeeded because “the marketplace picked winners and losers, not some central gatekeeper,” Dorgan said: “That freedom -- the very core of what makes the Internet what it is today -- must be preserved.” Snowe’s assessment: “The tide has turned in the debate between those who seek to maintain equality and those who would benefit from the creation of a toll road on the Internet super highway.” She’s the only Republican among cosponsors who include Kerry (Mass.), Boxer (Cal.), Leahy (Vt.), Clinton (N.Y.) and Obama (Ill.). Reactions were predictable from pro- and antineutrality camps. The bill is “a first step towards a national policy that will ensure that all consumers, not just the most affluent, have affordable access to high-speed Internet services,” Consumers Union analyst Jeannine Kenney said. The Snowe-Dorgan effort is the “next step” following AT&T’s consent not only to net- neutrality provisions in its BellSouth merger but to expanded network reach and “competitive prices to consumers -- demonstrating that neutrality and affordable access are not mutually exclusive,” said Consumer Federation of America Research Dir. Mark Cooper. Verizon continues to put quotation marks around “network neutrality” and prefers to call it “net regulation.” The legislation attempts “to solve a problem that doesn’t exist,” said Peter Davidson, senior vp-federal govt. relations. Policymakers will wonder how neutrality aids broadband deployment, especially given the proliferation of “broadband-enabled innovations” at CES this week, he added: “There is a ‘disconnect’ between consumers’ desires for new products and services and the stifling effects of this bill.” USTelecom Pres.-CEO Walter McCormick said the bill would “make it against the law for any company to invest in customized Internet service. That would mean all of us losing advances in home health monitoring, greater security of our financial transactions, new entertainment choices and telecommuting opportunities.” Brian Dietz, NCTA vp-communications, said neutrality mandates “will only stifle the investment, innovation and creativity that has been the hallmark of today’s dynamic broadband marketplace.” Free State Foundation Pres. Randolph May said Snowe and Dorgan “would have received a subpoena” from the FTC “if truth-in- labeling applied to our senators,” because they're actually trying to reimpose “analog era” common-carrier regulation.

Critics of the World Intellectual Property Organization’s revision of its broadcasting treaty (CD Aug 4 p7) are finding monsters under the bed and erasing U.S. law in their warnings, an NAB official told opponents Wed. Speaking to a roundtable organized by the Copyright Office and Patent & Trademark Office, Ben Ivins, NAB senior assoc. gen. counsel, said “the imagination truly runs wild” in harms traced to the latest draft.

The FCC should preserve and strengthen program access rules and scrutinize how cable operators “are actively thwarting new telco entry” into video by keeping them out of multiple dwelling units, USTelecom said in reply comments filed before a Dec. 29 deadline in the Commission’s annual video competition docket. “There is little doubt what would happen” if program access rules expire in 2007, USTelecom said. Under the rules, cable operators that also own programming networks must license programming to other pay-TV providers. Too many apartment buildings and condos come under exclusive access agreements with incumbent operators, said USTelecom. In separate comments, the Organization for the Promotion & Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies (OPASTCO) suggested reforming the retransmission consent rules because they hurt rural telcos’ chances of entering the video market. The FCC should “grant the American Cable Association’s petition on retransmission consent and adopt the suggested rules,” OPASTCO said. The Commission also should move to do away with confidential program carriage contracts between networks and pay-TV operators, OPASTCO said. Rural carriers can’t get “a sense of the true market value of the programming they are purchasing” without knowing what others pay, the group said. And the FCC should make it harder for cable operators to use FCC findings of effective competition to escape rate regulation, OPASTCO said. The FCC has no statutory basis on which to expand program access rules beyond “vertically- integrated, satellite delivered programming,” NCTA reply comments said: “Such increased intrusion in the marketplace would be unwarranted.” The pay TV market is already competitive, the group said: “The Commission should report to Congress once and for all that the delivery of video programming is fully competitive… [and] reject proposals for further government intrusion in the workings of a competitive marketplace.”

Tipton Osterthaler, ex-SAIC, named pres.-CEO of Americom Govt. Services… Changes at VNU: Susan Whiting promoted to exec. vp, remains head of Nielsen Media Research; John Lewis promoted to head of ACNielsen N. America; Pat Dodd promoted to pres., ACNielsen Europe; Steve Schmidt leaves as pres.- CEO of Marketing Information… Yahoo names National League of Cities telecom lobbyist Alex Ponder becomes aide to Cal. Assemblyman Mike Feuer (D-L.A.)… Jill Nash, ex-Gap Inc., chief communications officer… Changes at SkyTerra: Mobile Satellite Ventures CEO Alexander Good becomes SkyTerra pres.- CEO, retains MSV role; Mobile Satellite Ventures CFO Scott Macleod becomes SkyTerra CFO, retains MSV role… Graig Hale, ex-Charter Media, becomes Sportsman Channel gen. sales mgr.

With the FCC expected to act on video franchising rules at its Wed. agenda meeting, USTelecom made a last minute pitch for removing “obstacles” to wireline video competition. Only a few communities have wireline competition “and the obstacles posed by the local franchising process bear a significant part of the blame,” said USTelecom Pres. Walter McCormick in an ex parte letter sent FCC commissioners. “America’s consumers -- particularly in rural areas -- have waited long enough for the many benefits of video competition,” McCormick said. The letter was sent on behalf of 53 small and midsized carriers, he said. “Only a small minority of communities has the benefit of wireline video competition,” wrote the companies, including CenturyTel, Embarq and Windstream: “The obstacles posed by the local franchising process bear a significant part of the blame.” At our deadline, the agenda hadn’t been released yet.

The telco and wireless industries hailed an antipretexting bill (HR-4709) that Congress passed in the early hours of Sat. It would outlaw impersonation to get private phone records (CD Dec 9 Bulletin). “Pretexting is fraud -- pure and simple -- and I applaud Congress for moving to put a strong federal law on the books,” said CTIA Pres. Steve Largent. Wireless carriers will keep working to protect themselves and customers from such schemes, he said, and the legislation offers a “significant and meaningful deterrent.”

The separations process should be scaled back because it’s outdated, Bell companies told the FCC in reply comments filed Nov. 20. NASUCA and the Ad Hoc Telecommunications Users Committee disagreed, calling the rules “important tools” for regulators. The comments came in response to an FCC request for views on reforming separations -- used to decide if a particular telecom company’s costs are regulated by the FCC or by the states.

The FCC should extend a deadline for comments on TV captioning waiver petitions, said 7 deaf and disabled advocacy groups and a captioning company. Aberdeen Captioning wants an extension of at least 60 days from a Nov. 27 deadline (CD Nov 9 p18). Some religious programmers filed waiver requests with the FCC because they said captioning costs would place an “undue burden” on their budgets. Aberdeen and the advocates said more time was needed to review the hundreds of waiver requests. “Never before has the FCC put on public notice such a mass filing of petitions,” Aberdeen said: “The petition submittals are uneven in providing evidence to support granting an exemption on the basis of undue burden.” Advocates asked for a March 26 deadline, saying they need more time to review each petition. “The combination of an unprecedented and dramatically larger number of requests and a significantly shorter comment period makes it impossible for petitioners and members of the public to respond meaningfully,” said groups including American Assn. for People with Disabilities, Hearing Loss Assn. of America and Telecom for the Deaf & Hard of Hearing. Commenting on the potential for new captioning rules, USTelecom said the FCC should shorten the complaint process and use a standardized complaint form. “New regulations would be particularly burdensome on USTelecom’s smaller members,” the filing said: “Our members are distributors… and therefore lack control over non-technical quality aspects of closed captioning.”

Jeff Lanning, ex-USTelecom, joins Embarq Corp. as dir.- regulatory affairs… New members of Comverse Technology board: Susan Bowick, ex-Hewlett-Packard; Charles Burdick, ex-HIT Entertainment; Richard Nottenburg, Motorola; Joseph O'Donnell, ex-Artesyn Technologies; Theodore Schell, Liberty Associated Partners… Lt. Gen. John Campbell, U.S.A.F. (Ret.), becomes Iridium exec. vp-govt. affairs… Cedar Point Communications names Michael Brunsveld, ex-Nortel, managing dir.-Europe, heading new Europe subsidiary… Arris names Hubert Wo, ex-UTStarcom, to head technical operations in China… Cingular moves Chris Penrose to vp-gen. mgr., south Tex.

The IRS said Thurs. a “reasonable approach” for companies to collect refunds of the excise tax on long distance phone service, said USTelecom Pres. Walter McCormick. The agency, which declared this year it no longer would collect the tax, already outlined how individual taxpayers could get refunds. A similar process now has been offered to businesses and tax exempt entities, giving them an option of listing actual tax paid or using a formula. The next step is for Congress to repeal the phone excise tax, still imposed on local phone service, McCormick said.