A telecom bill to bring us up to date

We don't claim to be pros in telecommunications law, but you don't have to be a lawyer to know that our current status quo, as dictated by the Telecommunications Act of 1996, is less than satisfactory for the developments in the industry over the past decade.
Enter the House Energy and Commerce Committee's new telecom reform bill—a 77 page draft legislation which probably includes a lot of cheese, but has a few choice bits, namely clauses calling for video-over-broadband franchise streamlining, cable modem and DSL service to be regulated the same, and for "network neutrality" in service. What be network neutrality, you ask? In a nutshell, it would prevent ISPs from blocking or otherwise interfering with traffic so long as it's lawful (i.e. Verizon, for instance, wouldn't be able to block Vonage traffic). Of course, Verizon and SBC are none too happy about this bill in the face of some rather happy consumer groups, but we'll refrain from comment ourselves until we can find a nice plush couch, our reading glasses, and a pot of coffee, and give the thing a once-over.