WIRELESS SUMMIT NEWS: CONGRESSIONAL BATTLE LOOMS ON "NET NEUTRALITY" AND CITY CABLE FRANCHISE POWERS

Steve Goldberg and I got back from the Community Wireless Summit very late last night. Here's the big headline I wouldn't know about if I hadn't been there, because it's gotten very little coverage (none so far in the PD).

The U.S. House of Representatives is fast-tracking a telecom policy bill that, among other things, would:

1) Open the way for AT&T and other big broadband infrastructure providers to create "tiered Internet access" by charging extra fees for server and network priority... in effect, creating a passing lane on the information highway for preferred customers and business partners; and

2) Eliminate most municipal franchise authority over local cable TV by establishing "national franchising" in any city where the telecom (e.g. AT&T) establishes a new broadband video presence. A city like Cleveland (which faces franchise transfer and renewal negotiations with Time-Warner this Summer) could still collect franchise and public access fees, but would lose its right to enforce service in all neighborhoods, its voice in channel and rate issues, and its ability to negotiate other community benefits.

The bill is set for final markup this week by the Telecommunications Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, whose Chairman, Joe Barton of Texas, unveiled it just a week ago. Ohio E&C Committee members include Republican Paul Gillmor and Democrats Sherrod Brown and Ted Strickland. Gillmor and Brown are members of the subcommittee.

On the up side, the Barton draft (as of Friday) would protect municipalities' right to build and operate their own networks. But this part of the draft is already under attack by some of Barton's GOP colleagues.

The best press coverage of the bill is being collected by the Free Press here. See also Sasha Meinrath's rundown.

The Democratic minority, led by John Dingell of Michigan and Ed Markey of Massachusetts, is denouncing the Barton bill for its failure to protect "net neutrality". I assume this also represents the views of committee members Brown (who will be directly involved in markup this week) and Strickland.

So we could be watching the emergence of the sleeper issue of the 2006 Ohio election -- Democrats vs. Republicans over "who will own the Internet" and set the terms of access for Ohio residents.

Other stuff from the Wireless Summit: Steve's laptop was kaflooey for much of the event but he managed this wiki entry. On the way home, Angela Stuber of Ohio Community Computing Network started a blog.

At the Summit website they've already linked to some podcasts as well as blog coverage by Lisa Yeo, Bob Babione, and Ken from Seattle Wireless.

Apparently we got out of town just in time.