I 
111TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3458 
To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to establish a national broadband 
policy, safeguard consumer rights, spur investment and innovation, and 
for related purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 31, 2009 
Mr. MARKEY of Massachusetts (for himself and Ms. ESHOO) introduced the 
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 
A BILL 
To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to establish 
a national broadband policy, safeguard consumer rights, 
spur investment and innovation, and for related pur-
poses. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Internet Freedom 
Preservation Act of 2009’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
The Congress finds the following: 
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(1) Our Nation’s economy and society are in-
creasingly dependent on Internet services. 
(2) The Internet is an essential infrastructure 
that is comparable to roads and electricity in its 
support for a diverse array of economic, social, and 
political activity. 
(3) Internet technologies and services hold the 
promise of advancing economic growth, fostering in-
vestment, creating jobs, and spurring technological 
innovation. 
(4) As the Nation becomes more reliant upon 
such Internet technologies and services, unfettered 
access to the Internet to offer, access, and utilize 
content, services, and applications is vital. 
(5) The global leadership in high technology 
that the United States provides today stems directly 
from historic policies that embraced competition and 
openness and that have ensured that telecommuni-
cations networks are open to all lawful uses by all 
users. 
(6) The Internet was enabled by those historic 
policies and provides an open architecture medium 
for worldwide communications, providing a low bar-
rier to entry for Internet-based content, applications, 
and services. 
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(7) Due to legal and marketplace changes, 
these features of the Internet are no longer certain, 
and erosion of these historic policies permits tele-
communications network operators to control who 
can and who cannot offer content, services, and ap-
plications over the Internet utilizing such networks. 
(8) The national economy would be severely 
harmed if the ability of Internet content, service, 
and application providers to reach consumers was 
frustrated by interference from broadband tele-
communications network operators. 
(9) The overwhelming majority of residential 
consumers subscribe to Internet access service from 
1 of only 2 wireline providers: the cable operator or 
the telephone company. 
(10) Internet access service providers have an 
economic interest to discriminate in favor of their 
own services, content, and applications and against 
other providers. 
(11) A network neutrality policy based upon the 
principle of nondiscrimination and consistent with 
the history of the Internet’s development is essential 
to ensure that Internet services remain open to all 
consumers, entrepreneurs, innovators, and providers 
of lawful content, services, and applications. 
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(12) A network neutrality policy is also essen-
tial to give certainty to small businesses, leading 
global companies, investors, and others who rely 
upon the Internet for commercial reasons. 
(13) A network neutrality policy can also per-
mit Internet service providers to take action to pro-
tect network reliability, prevent unwanted electronic 
mail, and thwart illegal uses in the same way that 
telecommunications network operators have histori-
cally done consistent with the overarching principle 
of non-discrimination. 
(14) Because of the essential role of Internet 
services to the economic growth of the United 
States, to meet other national priorities, and to our 
right to free speech under the First Amendment of 
the Constitution of the United States, the United 
States should adopt a clear policy preserving the 
open nature of Internet communications and net-
works. 
SEC. 3. INTERNET FREEDOM. 
Title I of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 
U.S.C. 151 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the 
following: 
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‘‘(7) to preserve the freedom of independent 
Internet content, application, and service providers 
to compete and innovate; 
‘‘(8) to foster an evolving level of capacity avail-
able throughout communications networks to sup-
port competition and innovation for lawful Internet 
content, applications, and services, including applica-
tions and services that require substantial down-
stream and upstream bandwidth; and 
‘‘(9) to ensure that the Internet remains an in-
dispensable platform for innovation in the United 
States economy, thereby enabling the Nation to pro-
vide global leadership in online commerce and tech-
nological progress. 
‘‘(b) DUTIES OF INTERNET ACCESS SERVICE PRO-
VIDERS.—With respect to any Internet access service of-
fered to the public, each Internet access service provider 
shall have the duty to— 
‘‘(1) not block, interfere with, discriminate 
against, impair, or degrade the ability of any person 
to use an Internet access service to access, use, 
send, post, receive, or offer any lawful content, ap-
plication, or service through the Internet; 
‘‘(2) not impose a charge on any Internet con-
tent, service, or application provider to enable any 
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lawful Internet content, application, or service to be 
offered, provided, or used through the provider’s 
service, beyond the end user charges associated with 
providing the service to such provider; 
‘‘(3) not prevent or obstruct a user from at-
taching any lawful device to or utilizing any such de-
vice in conjunction with such service, provided such 
device does not harm the provider’s network; 
‘‘(4) offer Internet access service to any person 
upon reasonable request therefor; 
‘‘(5) not provide or sell to any content, applica-
tion, or service provider, including any affiliate pro-
vider or joint venture, any offering that prioritizes 
traffic over that of other such providers on an Inter-
net access service; and 
‘‘(6) not install or utilize network features, 
functions, or capabilities that impede or hinder com-
pliance with this section. 
‘‘(c) COMMISSION ACTION.—Not later than 90 days 
after the date of enactment of the Internet Freedom Pres-
ervation Act of 2009, the Commission shall promulgate 
rules to ensure that providers of Internet access service— 
‘‘(1) fulfill the duties described in subsection 
(b); 
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‘‘(2) disclose meaningful information to con-
sumers about a provider’s Internet access service in 
a clear, uniform, and conspicuous manner and in 
conformity with the duties described in subsection 
(e); 
‘‘(3) generally, to the extent feasible, make 
available sufficient network capacity to users to en-
able the provision, availability, and use of an Inter-
net access service to support lawful content, applica-
tions, and services that require high bandwidth com-
munications to and from an end user; and 
‘‘(4) not operate Internet access services in an 
anticompetitive, unreasonable, unfair, discrimina-
tory, or deceptive manner. 
‘‘(d) REASONABLE NETWORK MANAGEMENT.—Noth-
ing in this section shall be construed to prohibit an Inter-
net access provider from engaging in reasonable network 
management consistent with the policies and duties of 
nondiscrimination and openness set forth in this Act. For 
purposes of subsections (b)(1) and (b)(5), a network man-
agement practice is a reasonable practice only if it fur-
thers a critically important interest, is narrowly tailored 
to further that interest, and is the means of furthering 
that interest that is the least restrictive, least discrimina-
tory, and least constricting of consumer choice available. 
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In determining whether a network management practice 
is reasonable, the Commission shall consider, among other 
factors, the particular network architecture or technology 
limitations of the provider. 
‘‘(e) TRANSPARENCY
FOR CONSUMERS.—With re-
spect to any Internet access service or private trans-
mission capacity offered to the public, each Internet access 
service provider shall provide to consumers and make pub-
licly available detailed information about such services, in-
cluding information about the speed, nature, and limita-
tions of such services. Each Internet access service pro-
vider must publicly disclose, at a minimum, network man-
agement practices that affect communications between a 
user and a content, application, or service provider in the 
ordinary, routine use of such broadband service. 
‘‘(f) STAND-ALONE INTERNET ACCESS SERVICE.— 
Within 180 days after the date of enactment of the Inter-
net Freedom Preservation Act of 2009, the Commission 
shall promulgate rules to ensure that an Internet access 
service provider does not require a consumer, as a condi-
tion on the purchase of any Internet access service offered 
by such provider, to purchase any other service or offering. 
The Commission shall adopt any other rules it determines 
necessary to make such requirement effective and mean-
ingful for consumers. 
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‘‘(g) OTHER SERVICES.—Not later than 180 days 
after the date of enactment of the Internet Freedom Pres-
ervation Act of 2009, the Commission shall complete all 
actions necessary to— 
‘‘(1) promote an ever-increasing level of Inter-
net access service to end users; 
‘‘(2) ensure that such evolving level of service 
provided to end users is capable of supporting lawful 
content, applications, and services and provides 
ample bandwidth for such traffic to and from an end 
user; 
‘‘(3) promote both facilities-based and nonfacili-
ties-based competition to enable information service 
providers to have marketplace choices for trans-
mission capacity to reach end users; 
‘‘(4) define the term ‘private transmission ca-
pacity services’; 
‘‘(5) clarify whether private transmission capac-
ity services may not be subject to the duties de-
scribed in subsections (b)(5) and (b)(6); 
‘‘(6) ensure that private transmission capacity 
services do not undermine the purposes of this Act 
and do not diminish or degrade the level of Internet 
access service offered to the public by the same pro-
vider; and 
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