The tech companies are wading into the fight, gingerly (with eBay as the most effective) writes Matt Stoller. But their pro-Net Neutrality campaign is still dwarfed by AT&T, BellSouth and Verizon’s legislative shopping spree.

The telcos are reportedly spending between ten and fifty million dollars in their campaign to control the Internet. Their ads are splashed across local TV in DC, Maine, Washington State, Wisconsin and other areas of the country. Their money is channeled through phony front groups like Hands off the Internet and TV4US (along with indirect costs, such as money to think tanks) in a campaign to paint Net Neutrality as big, bad government regulation — bad for consumer Joes like you and me.

This deceptive campaign also includes canned telephone appeals and beltway radio spots. These Astroturf pitches fail to mention that every major consumer advocacy group is in our coalition and opposed to the telco cartel on this — or that their real plan is not to free net-users from regulation but to write new laws that clear the way for AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth to seize control of content.

Telco money has bought a lot of support in the House, though less in the Senate. The House telecom bill that’s on deck this week is called the COPE Act. As it’s currently written it eviscerates net neutrality.

It’s now up to the House Committee on Rules to allow an amendment onto the floor that would put meaningful and enforceable Network Neutrality language into the Act. The 13 members that play gatekeepers at Rules are meeting 3:30pm, Wednesday. They could stand a call from you. Tell them that we need the full House to vote on Net Neutrality. Every representative’s stance on the future of the Internet should be put on the record.

(To that end, SavetheInternet.com members sent this letter today)

If Rules allows Net Neutrality to the floor, we expect a full House vote as early as Friday.

The House fight is in its final throes. After this week, the Net Neutrality debate will shift to the Senate, where we have good momentum behind a bipartisan bill offered by Senators Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Byron Dorgan (D-North Dakota).

Stay tuned.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 6th, 2006 at 7:45 am and is filed under Uncategorized.-->