House releases Broadband Internet Transmission Services working draft
On 15 September, the US House of Representatives released a working draft of a Broadband Internet Transmission Services ("BITS") bill for comment. Interestingly, the Energy and Commerce committee is chaired by Texan Rep. Joe Barton, from one of only a handful of states that tax Internet bandwidth and Internet services (such as web hosting) provided to out-of-state customers.
This bill ostensibly levels the playing field for VOIP and traditional telecom, but what about the playing field for digital video? Broadband video can be delivered through wireless transmissions (satellite, over-the-air) or wired technologies (cable, DSL, power lines), and that's before getting into content origination, codecs, digital rights, and carriage. This bill clearly needs fleshing out.
Broadband video service providers should download the BITS draft PDF and read through sections 301 - 306, which include provisions for registration of broadband services, franchising regulations, and broadband video carriage agreements.