About two dozen Internet business people and enthusiasts have submitted a petition with 7,500 signatures to Sen. Jeff Bingaman's office urging him to support "Net neutrality" provisions in a pending telecommunications bill.
The group said Bingaman, a New Mexico Democrat, could be one of the deciding votes on the bill.
The bill has already passed the House and is currently in the Senate Commerce Committee, which remains deadlocked. A full Senate vote is expected sometime in September.
At issue is the desire by large broadband providers, such as Verizon Communications and AT&T, to insert language in the bill that would allow them to expand from the current flat pricing to a tiered approach. Tiered pricing would be based on the speed, reliability and security of the bandwidth used.
Currently, telecom companies cannot offer faster connections or other advantages to Web sites if they pay more. From a consumer standpoint, as the rules currently stand, a large corporation's Web site loads just as fast as the Web site for a local store.
Small operators of Web sites have said they fear they will be pushed into "slower lanes" of the Internet.
"A small business like mine doesn't need any roadblocks to profitability," said Gary Maricle, an Albuquerque businessman who runs www.nmchili.com [1]
Ben Weiss, a University of New Mexico physics student and computer programmer, agreed. "If Net neutrality were eliminated, the Internet would be turned over to big corporations who want to change it," he said.
Bingaman was out of town on Thursday when the petition was presented at his Downtown office. A representative accepted the petition.