The Senate telecom bill will be an omnibus package including titl...
The Senate telecom bill will be an omnibus package including titles addressing franchising, Universal Service Fund (USF), net neutrality and broadband deployment, Senate Commerce Committee Chmn. Stevens said late Mon. at the Comptel conference. A final draft is expected…
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to be marked up after the Easter recess, Stevens said. The most divisive legislative issue is net neutrality, Stevens said, with some lawmakers arguing for no regulation while others -- particularly the younger, new committee members -- want assurance that content and service providers have nondiscriminatory service and access to the Internet. On the other hand, there’s strong “support and great unanimity” in including provisions to speed broadband deployment, Stevens said. “The largest barrier to broadband entry is the current franchising structure,” he said. Stevens predicted the committee would agree on franchising terms such as percentage of revenue available to localities, whether there should be a uniform standard for the number of PEG channels and how to address public rights-of-way.