12 December 2006

The U.S. Congress adjourned Friday without passing a much-debated broadband bill or strengthening network neutrality rules.

The wide-ranging broadband bill would have streamlined the franchising process that telecom companies such as AT&T and Verizon Communications need to go through to offer IP-based television service in competition with cable TV. But advocates of net neutrality rules pressed Congress to hold onto the broadband bill unless it included a provision prohibiting broadband providers from blocking or slowing competing Internet content.