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New to Washington, Net Firms Learn Lobbying Lesson

Net Neutrality recap: in a vote of 34 to 22, the House Committee on Energy & Commerce rejected an amendment that would effectively bar the practice of network operators favoring one content provider's Web traffic over another. This is definitely a defeat for any Web firm that isn't a network operator, including Google, Yahoo, Intel, eBay, and Microsoft.   The larger bill, which passed 42-12, means nothing changes on the consumer end (i.e. they won't have to pay anything). Operators still have to let consumers access the content, applications and services of their choice, but some of their favorites could be delivering slower traffic than others.  Under the law, companies who feel unnecessarily wronged by the AT&T and Comcasts at the top may appeal to the Federal Communications Commission on a case-by-case basis, but generally, network operators will be able to limit publicly available bandwidth as they see fit. The loss, Business Week says, is partially attributable to how unfamiliar Washington is with Net companies, versus the polished lobbying expertise of the cable and teleco operators. Analysts say investors should red-flag any business whose success depends on network neutrality.

Read the whole story at Business Week »

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