CNet has an article that indicates the telecommunications bill pending in the U.S. Senate that has provisions in it to protect network neutrality (the idea that ISPs like AT&T should not be allowed to charge content providers extra fees to prioritize carriage of certain content over others) is stalled in committee. With time running down for this year’s session, it seems unlikely the controversial bill will make progress. This means at the moment, there are no restrictions against the tiered Internet.
The whole arguement will start up again in the next Congress I’m sure.
It’s a frightening prospect to have a group of guys who don’t know digital sh*t from binomial shinola (the US Senate) consider sweeping changes for the internet.