Future of Net Neutrality Legislation Unclear, Davis Says
LAS VEGAS -- It will take time, and hearings, before it’s clear how likely Congress is to take up net neutrality legislation, said Rep. Davis (R-Va.), speaking at the CES here Mon.: “This is the kind of issue that there will be a lot of posturing on, but some conclusion may be unlikely.”
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Basic principles of net neutrality may apply to all media, said Rep. Issa (R-Cal.), a former chmn. of CEA. He said the principle for content delivery probably should come to resemble a 1948 Supreme Court ruling that Hollywood studios shouldn’t own cinemas. “History has borne out that that was a good decision,” Issa said here. The basic principle should apply to all media, he said, without specifying cable.
The alternative to banning vertical integration is regulation, Issa said, noting that power companies are allowed to be vertically integrated only because they're regulated. If communications industries don’t want regulation, “not having a vertical monopoly is very important,” Issa said.
The Democratic-controlled Congress likely will hold hearings on net neutrality, Davis said. The hearings will “tee it up,” and “something may start to emerge,” but Hill watchers will have to gauge the leadership’s assertiveness on net neutrality to see how likely action is, he said. House Speaker Pelosi (D-Cal.) and Telecom Subcommittee Chmn. Markey (D-Mass.) support net neutrality legislation, he said. No Democrats were on the CES Hill panel.
On other issues, Davis said he will reintroduce his Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) reform legislation on data security, which passed the House last year but stalled in the Senate. He said there’s no visible opposition to the bill, but it can be blocked by a single anonymous senator. -- Michael Feazel
CES Notebook…
Products able to receive broadcast Advanced-VSB (A-VSB) transmissions for mobile TV could be available by 2008, John Godfrey, vp-govt. & public affairs for Samsung Information Systems America, said at CES here Sun. Samsung, backed by Sinclair Bcstg., wants to enhance the ATSC VSB modulation standard to improve transmissions to receivers under dynamic multipath conditions, including portable and mobile devices. Samsung and Sinclair are conducting mobile TV demos here using DVD-based content inserted into the digital transmission stream at Sinclair affiliate KVMY-TV in Henderson, Nev. The content is transmitted using KVMY’s Ch. 21. The ATSC is expected to vote on the proposed enhancement by spring. Samsung jointly developed the proposed standard with transmitter developer Rhode & Schwarz. They have sent it to the ATSC for approval of: a Supplemental Reference Sequence (SRS) to be added to the transmitted signal; a low signal-to-noise forward error-correction code stream; and a new single frequency network application tool. The Las Vegas demo is being transmitted at 2.89 Mbps, but data show that programming eventually could be sent at 1.1 mbps, Sinclair Advanced Technology Dir. Mark Aitken told us.