The Internet Neutrality Receives Another Blow

The attempt to overhaul the Telecommunications Act of 1996 is proving to be more difficult than the US legislators expected, and the latest battle in the telecommunication war has been lost by the Internet neutrality defenders.

According to TMCNet, the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee has reportedly rejected a Democrat-backed Net neutrality amendment (the Markey amendment) which had support from Internet and software companies including Microsoft, Amazon.com and Google.

Giants like Verizon Communications and AT&T want to create a separate channel for special services which require wide bandwidths, such as downloading movies, a need sprung from the increase in volume of audio and video data.

The Savetheinternet.com site, which militates for Internet neutrality, has posted information regarding the voting process, and although the amendment has been rejected, its supporters are optimistic.

"Ok, so the vote on the Markey amendment to protect the Internet has happened, and it was voted down, 34-22. That is a big deal. It's too bad we lost the vote, but we expected that loss. What we did not expected was the narrow margin […] So we didn't win this vote, but this close margin was nonetheless a smack to the jaw of the insiders, and a clear victory for the people", Savetheinternet.com says.

The site also announced that in less than a week it had collected more than 250,000 signatures calling on the House Energy & Commerce Committee to protect Internet freedom from passing the "Markey Amendment".