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As he promised to do a couple of months ago, Congressman Eric Massa has introduced legislation to protect consumers from price gouging at the hands of Internet service providers (ISPs).
The bill is known as the Broadband Internet Fairness Act (H.R. 2902) and was inspired by what happened in the Rochester area with Time Warner Cable in April. In April, Time Warner Cable was set to begin "consumption based billing" trials in the Rochester area, as well as a handful of other regions across the country. After hearing from constituents and their outrage with this proposal by Time Warner Cable, Massa took on Time Warner Cable and after a lot of pressure was applied, Time Warner Cable eventually halted the trials.
But that did not stop Massa. He promised at the time that he would introduce legislation to address this issue and that's exactly what he did on Wednesday.
This is a summary from Massa that details what the Broadband Internet Fairness Act would do:
The Broadband Internet Fairness Act will prevent the monopolistic rate increases of broadband companies by promoting the interests of broadband customers. Specifically the bill:
- Requires internet service providers (ISPs) to submit plans to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), in consultation with the FCC if they plan to move to a usage-based plan;
- Prohibits volume usage plans if the FTC determines that these plans are imposing rates, terms, and conditions that are unreasonable or discriminatory;
- Sets up public hearings for plans submitted to the FTC for public review and input;
- Only affects internet providers with 2 million or more subscribers;
- Imposes penalties for broadband ISPs that ignore these rules.
Time Warner Cable's consumption based billing would have charges customers who use the Internet frequently up to $150 a month for Internet usage. In that $150 a month is $75 a month for the "turbo" package that Time Warner Cable would have set up, which would give 100 GB of usage per month. But if you go over that, the overage fees max out at $75. Meaning, if you use your 100 GB for that month and go over the max amount, your Internet will cost you $150 for that month.
That is where Massa came in and decided that legislation was necessary to address this important issue.
"Access to the internet has become a critical part of our economy and we can't let corporate giants limit the public's access to this important tool," said Congressman Eric Massa. "The Broadband Internet Fairness Act is all about protecting consumers from outrageous internet overcharges and giving the public a voice in this process. I have taken lots of time to work on this bill and have consulted with my constituents and industry experts. Now the hard work of passing this bill begins."
"Cable providers want to stifle the internet so they can rake in advertiser dollars by keeping consumers from watching video on the Internet. But so long as Americans can't choose which cable channels they want to pay for, I don't think cable operators should be able to determine consumers' monthly internet usage. Additionally, charging based on a bandwidth usage is a flawed model when the cost of usage is totally out of line with the price. Consumers are much better served by plans based on the speed of the connection rather than amount of bandwidth used. Competition is crucial to our economy and I refuse to let monopolistic corporations dominate the market and gouge my constituents."
This bill is important, considering Time Warner Cable apparently hasn't given up on consumption based billing and similar plans could be utilized by other ISPs in the future. Glenn Britt, CEO of Time Warner Cable, said this at the time: "It is clear from the public response over the last two weeks that there is a great deal of misunderstanding about our plans to roll out additional tests on Consumption Based Billing. As a result, we will not proceed with implementation of additional tests until further consultation with our customers and other interested parties, ensuring that community needs are being met. While we continue to believe that Consumption Based Billing may be the best pricing plan for consumers, we want to do everything we can to inform our customers of our plans and have the benefit of their views as part of our testing process."
That was April 16. Nothing further can be found regarding consumption based billing on Time Warner Cable's website, which used to display information (at least in April) about consumption based billing prominently on its website.
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