State Senate panel backs bill to deregulate Internet phone service

An industry-backed bill that would preempt state agencies from regulating Internet-enabled voice and data transmissions won unanimous approval from a state Senate committee in its first legislative hearing.

Amid protests from consumer advocates, the bill's author, Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima), tried to downplay the significance of the measure, which proponents said would simply lock the state's current hands-off policy into law. Such a reiteration of existing practices would give Silicon Valley businesses "the certainty" to continue developing innovative, Internet-powered products and programs, Padilla argued at a hearing of the Senate Energy, Utilities and Telecommunications Committee. The bill "maintains the environment that has taken us to where we are today and ensures it will continue tomorrow," said Robert Callahan, a lobbyist for TechAmerica, a Silicon Valley telecommunications and technology trade group. But opponents, mainly consumer advocates for the poor, elderly and minorities, countered that Padilla's bill, SB 1161, would strip the California Public Utilities Commission of its last vestige of power to require telephone companies to provide universal, basic land-line service to any consumer.