The proposed draft of the Broadband Consumer Choice Act of 2005, which Senator John Ensign announced on July 27, 2005, is cause for concern. We feel this bill would prove disastrous for the future of the internet, in terms of access and political neutrality of content.

In Illinois, a similar cause for concern occurred in 2005 in the Illinois state legislature with a proposed rewrite of the Illinois Telecommunication Act. The Illinois legislature handled that rewrite correctly, after citizens spoke out and organized, and the Illinois legislature preserved the rights of access and consumer protections which had been under threat from entrenched commercial interests and their lobbies.

This could serve as a example for the proposed federal rewrite now under consideration. With the United States increasingly falling behind on the world stage in terms of high-speed internet access, and with the promise of the internet as a free medium coming under increased attack, we at Chicago Media Action encourage citizens to voice their concerns about the federal rewrite of the Broadband Consumer Choice Act of 2005, to ensure that the internet and forthcoming digital media are open and accessible to all.

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