SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) The Internet has had profound benefits for 
numerous aspects of daily life for millions of people 
throughout the United States and is increasingly 
vital to the economy of the United States. 
(2) The importance of the broadband market-
place to citizens, communities, and commerce war-
rants a thorough inquiry to obtain input and ideas 
for a variety of broadband policies that will promote 
openness, competition, innovation, and affordable, 
ubiquitous broadband service for all individuals in 
the United States. 
SEC. 3. BROADBAND POLICY. 
Title I of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 
U.S.C. 151 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the 
following new section: 
‘‘SEC. 12. BROADBAND POLICY. 
‘‘It is the policy of the United States— 
‘‘(1) to maintain the freedom to use for lawful 
purposes broadband telecommunications networks, 
including the Internet, without unreasonable inter-
ference from or discrimination by network operators, 
as has been the policy and history of the Internet 
and the basis of user expectations since its inception; 
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‘‘(2) to ensure that the Internet remains a vital 
force in the United States economy, thereby enabling 
the Nation to preserve its global leadership in online 
commerce and technological innovation; 
‘‘(3) to preserve and promote the open and 
interconnected nature of broadband networks that 
enable consumers to reach, and service providers to 
offer, lawful content, applications, and services of 
their choosing, using their selection of devices, as 
long as such devices do not harm the network; and 
‘‘(4) to safeguard the open marketplace of ideas 
on the Internet by adopting and enforcing baseline 
protections to guard against unreasonable discrimi-
natory favoritism for, or degradation of, content by 
network operators based upon its source, ownership, 
or destination on the Internet.’’. 
SEC. 4. INTERNET FREEDOM ASSESSMENT. 
(a) INTERNET FREEDOM ASSESSMENT REQUIRED.— 
(1) IN
GENERAL.—Within 90 days after the 
date of the enactment of this Act, the Federal Com-
munications Commission (in this Act referred to as 
the ‘‘Commission’’) shall commence a proceeding on 
broadband services and consumer rights. 
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(2) SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS.—As part of the 
proceeding under this section, the Commission shall 
assess— 
(A) whether broadband network providers 
adhere to the Commission’s Broadband Policy 
Statement of August, 2005 (FCC 05–151), in-
cluding whether, consistent with the needs of 
law enforcement, such providers refrain from 
blocking, thwarting, or unreasonably interfering 
with the ability of consumers to— 
(i) access, use, send, receive, or offer 
lawful content, applications, or services 
over broadband networks, including the 
Internet; 
(ii) use lawful applications and serv-
ices of their choice; and 
(iii) attach or connect their choice of 
legal devices to use in conjunction with 
their broadband telecommunications or in-
formation services, provided such devices 
do not harm the network; 
(B) whether broadband network providers 
add charges for quality of service, or other simi-
lar additional fees or surcharges, to certain 
Internet applications and service providers, and 
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whether such pricing conflicts with the policies 
of the United States stated in section 12 of the 
Communications Act of 1934 (as added by sec-
tion 3 of this Act); 
(C) whether broadband network providers 
offer to consumers parental control protection 
tools, services to combat unsolicited commercial 
electronic mail, and other similar consumer 
services, the manner in which such services are 
offered, and the extent to which such services 
are consistent with such policies of the United 
States; 
(D) practices by which network providers 
manage or prioritize network traffic, including 
prioritization for emergency communications, 
and whether and in what instances such prac-
tices may be consistent with such policies of the 
United States; 
(E) with respect to content, applications, 
and services— 
(i) the historic economic benefits of an 
open platform; 
(ii) the relationship between competi-
tion in the broadband Internet access mar-
ket and an open platform; and 
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(iii) the policy choices and results of 
global competitors with respect to access 
competition and an open platform; 
(F) whether the need for enforceable rules 
governing openness, consumer rights, and con-
sumer protections or prohibiting unreasonable 
discrimination is lessened if a broadband net-
work provider provides significantly high band-
width speeds to consumers; and 
(G) the potential of policies promoting 
openness in spectrum allocation, universal serv-
ice programs, and video franchising to expand 
innovation through protection from unreason-
able interference by network owners of an open 
marketplace for speech and commerce in con-
tent, applications, and services. 
(b) PUBLIC BROADBAND SUMMITS REQUIRED.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—As part of the proceeding 
required under subsection (a), and within 1 year 
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 
Commission shall conduct a minimum of 8 public 
broadband summits, in geographically diverse loca-
tions, around the United States. The Commission 
shall publicly announce the time and location of each 
such summit at least 30 days in advance. 
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