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US Senate's net neutrality warrior to Comcast: Remind us how much you hate web fast lanes

You do hate them, right?

US Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) has urged Comcast to publicly swear it will not pave fast lanes across the internet for wealthy websites. Leahy, writing in an open letter, also wants the American telco to use its market and lobbying muscle to support net neutrality.

Leahy noted that the amount of public comment on the issue has been overwhelmingly against allowing paid-for traffic differentiation online: essentially, allowing ISPs to charge websites a premium to pipe their traffic fastest to broadband subscribers.

Critics say it will lock out startups and smaller biz from competing with wealthy websites that can afford the fast-lane tolls; those in favor of paid prioritization argue big websites, particularly the movie and music streamers, should pay towards the network infrastructure they're reliant on.

In July, the senator, who is the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, reminded Comcast that he had introduced net neutrality legislation in June to deal with the issue – and said it would ease Americans' minds if the ISP spoke up.

"As the antitrust regulators continue to evaluate Comcast’s proposed transaction with Time Warner Cable, and regardless of whether it is approved, I ask Comcast to pledge that it will not engage in paid prioritization," he wrote again on Monday.

"I also ask that Comcast pledge not to engage in any activity that prioritizes affiliated content or services over unaffiliated content or services, helping to ensure that vertical integration does not threaten competition online."

Comcast is already bound to uphold net neutrality until 2018 as part of the terms imposed for its takeover of NBC-Universal, and the company has said it isn't planning on changing that stance.

The company has entered into a deal with Netflix to improve connectivity exclusively between the ISP's subscribers and the steaming website, but says that it conforms to Uncle Sam's Open Internet rules, established by the Federal Communications Commission in 2010, and that this agreement isn't paid prioritization.

Sena Fitzmaurice, Comcast's VP of corporate communications for government & regulatory communications, told The Register that the telco was still analyzing Leahy's letter – in part because the senator apparently chose to release it to the press before sending a copy to the recipient.

She pointed out that Senator Leahy isn't on the committee for deciding either the Time Warner Cable merger or net neutrality rules, since that is a decision for the FCC and Department of Justice. She also noted that it was unusual for the senator to target Comcast alone out of all the ISPs.

Leahy has been on a road trip across the US trying to muster support for net neutrality legislation to be put on the statute books, but his own bill has little chance of success at present. Only Democrats have signed up to support it, and such legislation has a vanishingly small chance of making it through the Republican majority in the House of Representatives.

The looming congressional elections may also stop any legislation on net neutrality. The Republicans could take over control of the Senate in the next election cycle, leaving the prospect of legislation in support of net neutrality highly unlikely. ®

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