Microsoft Corp. and Google Inc. say language included in a U.S. House bill doesn’t go far enough to protect them from fees that Internet service providers might charge for delivering content.
The draft proposal released this week in Washington by House Commerce Committee chairman Rep. Joe Barton contains a “net neutrality” section that lets the Federal Communications Commission take action against network operators if they block access to certain websites or services. Internet companies also want lawmakers to ensure they can transmit content such as streaming video without incurring additional costs.
“This bill sends a bad signal to those companies spending billions of dollars to invest in Internet content,” said Gerard Waldron, an attorney at Covington & Burling in Washington who is fighting the legislation for Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft and Mountain View, Calif.-based Google, as well as Amazon.com Inc., EBay Inc., Yahoo Inc. and IAC/InterActiveCorp.
Phone and cable companies have also spent billions building networks and may seek to recoup some of those investments by passing costs on to content providers.
The proposal by Barton, a Texas Republican, would help phone and Internet service providers introduce television services faster, and let the FCC enforce a broadband policy statement it adopted in August.
