Net-Neutrality Backers, Telcos Spar Over Stimulus' Broadband Rules

By Ryan Singel, Wired News, March 23, 2009

If telecoms are to get $4 billion in stimulus funds for broadband that enables Facebook for farmers and netbooks for mountain men, then the feds must require the new networks to be open and nondiscriminatory, public interest groups told federal bureaucrats Monday.

By contrast, representatives of nation's telecoms asked "Won't someone think of the economy?" — protesting to Commerce Department officials that attaching conditions to the cash would make it even less enticing to bring broadband to Americans stuck with only dialup or expensive satellite connections.

But the issue before the National Telecommunications and Information Administration at Monday's hearing wasn't just the $4.7 billion in broadband grants which Congress funded in the 2009 stimulus bill.

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