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February 13, 2008, 02:58 PM ET
Educause Cheers New Net Neutrality Bill
Proponents of network neutrality, including the college technology group, Educause, heralded the introduction today in the U.S. House of Representatives of legislation supporting the concept. The bill would require telephone and cable companies to keep their broadband pipes open to any kind of Web content or network application — even those that compete with the companies’ own offerings — and to prohibit the companies from favoring certain types of network traffic with fast-lane delivery to people’s computers.
The bill, called the Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2008, is a scaled back version of similar legislation introduced a year ago and in 2006. Earlier bills would have written network neutrality principles into law. The bill introduced today by Rep. Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, and Chip Pickering, a Mississippi Republican, would require the Federal Communications Commission to take an active role in ensuring that telecommunications companies neither favor nor discriminate against certain Web content or applications.
Educause has been a strong supporter of net neutrality, saying it is needed to help advance online education and research. Also to that end, Educause last month released a document that pushes the federal government to promote universal access to high-speed broadband.—Andrea L. Foster
Categories: Research
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