Colorado House debates net neutrality versus benefits of competition
The Colorado House on Monday debated legislation to preserve net neutrality and ensure internet providers that receive tax dollars aren’t playing games with speed and prices.
House Bill 1312 passed on a voice vote and is likely to pass the recorded vote in House in the next few days. Then it will have a tougher playing field with the Senate majority, based on Monday’s debate.
Democrats promised before the session they would try to preserve net neutrality in states, after the Republican majority on the Federal Communications Commission in December overturned the requirement that internet service providers charge all websites equally and maintain optimum speeds at the lowest price.
The fear among net neutrality proponents is that internet service providers will raise rates for faster speeds to customers or to websites. The latter could squeeze out small businesses, and the former could require subscribers to pay more for streaming websites such as Netflix.
Rep, Leslie Herod, D-Denver, the bill’s sponsor, said, “As long as you’re receiving taxpayer funds you can’t play those games with the information taxpayers want.”
