House panel approves bill to extend network neutrality exemption

The House Commerce Committee approved a bill that would temporarily keep small Internet service providers (ISPs) exempt from some network neutrality rules.

The bill extends for five years the exemption for small ISPs from transparency requirements that are part of the rules. Bipartisan support for the bill came after last-minute deal-making between Democrats and Republicans on the committee. Democrats had objected to an initial version of the legislation that applied the exemption to any ISP with 500,000 or fewer subscribers, because they said it would include companies that were too large to be considered a small business. That version also would have made the exemption permanent. But the version approved Feb 25 applies to Internet providers with no more than 250,000 subscribers and no longer extends the exemptions indefinitely.