Duff leads new net neutrality effort
Connecticut lawmakers will weigh again this year whether to require broadband companies to adhere to “net neutrality” rules guaranteeing equal rates for the bandwidth used by internet content companies on their networks.
Under a bill introduced last week by Connecticut state Sen. Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, all internet service providers would have to maintain net neutrality in Connecticut, with a separate bill from State Rep. Michael Winkler, D-Vernon, limiting the requirement to those that receive state contracts.
It is the second legislative session in which the Connecticut General Assembly is taking up the issue, with the National Conference of State Legislatures tracking bills in more than 25 states as of last October that would implement net neutrality rules.
In June 2015, the Obama administration formalized the policy at the federal level, recognizing the Internet’s history of non-preferential access, but the Trump administration abandoned that policy last year to give broadband providers the option of charging tiered rates for companies steering content over their networks.
Critics of the change included Jessica Rosenworcel, a Hartford native who is one of five commissioners of the Federal Communications Com-
mission, who argued that big telecommunications companies could enact preferential pricing for larger customers, effectively discriminating against small businesses that create online content.
Under former Attorney General George Jepsen, Connecticut joined New
York and 20 other states last August in filing a legal challenge in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, aiming to restore net neutrality as the basis of federal law. That case now moves ahead under newly elected Attorney General William Tong.
Pending any court outcome, Duff and Winkler are moving ahead with their bills which would be subject to the approval of
newly installed Gov. Ned Lamont. For depth of expertise in the broadband industry among governors nationally, Lamont is matched only by those representing Colorado, Hawaii and North Dakota, with Lamont having run Campus TeleVideo providing cable TV and Internet to college and university campuses.
In addition to mobile operators like AT&T and
Verizon, the state of Connecticut contracts with Frontier Communications for telecommunications services, with the company having its U.S. headquarters in Duff’s district of Norwalk.
Other major broadband providers in Connecticut include Stamford-based Charter Communications; Comcast and Cox Communications, the dominant cable companies in the
Hartford area; and Altice USA, which offers Optimum services in southwestern Connecticut and other parts of the state.
“Whenever I bring this up to constituents, whether it’s in social media or anywhere else, I get more of a positive reaction than pretty much anything else,” Duff testified last May in Hartford on the issue of net neutrality. “It doesn’t mean that you’re an enemy
of any of the businesses here in Connecticut that are the internet service providers — in fact, I respect them all and think they do a great job. We disagree on this issue because I believe that Connecticut has a right to have ... our principles here in the state, and codified by state law.”