WASHINGTON, DC – Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) has announced plans to introduce new legislation designed to prohibit operators of internet networks from charging companies a premium for faster delivery of their content to end-users and to keep networks from giving preferential treatment to content providers with whom they are affiliated.The bill comes in response to concern that internet access could be blocked or hindered by phone and cable companies, some of whom have discussed creating layered levels of service, with different rates charged for different delivery speeds.

Consumer advocacy groups and internet companies alike have asserted that such a structure will be detrimental to websites and companies that are unwilling or unable to pay extra for premium delivery services.

“You best compete by letting every company play on a level field, but these proposals would tilt the field,” Senator Wyden told the New York Times concerning the billing structures some networks have proposed. “The Net has been about access and equal treatment and giving everyone a fair shake, and people who own these fat pipes, these cable and telecommunications people who say that they can’t keep doing this, want to undermine that.”

Wyden’s bill, which is entitled the “Internet Non-Discrimination Act of 2006,” seeks to prohibit network owners from levying fees that grant certain providers better access and delivery speed than others or from blocking its subscribers from accessing specific content.

Wyden said his bill will also prevent network operators from showing preferential treatment to affiliated companies and content providers. Time Warner Cable, for instance, should not be permitted to give other Time Warner companies better network access and better delivery service than they give to Time Warner’s competitors, Wyden told the Times.

Phone and cable companies have argued that they should have the right to offer a premium delivery service to internet companies and to charge more for that service. With traffic across all networks rising they assert, their customers may want to guarantee their websites can be accessed quickly, even if that means paying a higher rate.

Many consumer groups have warned, however, that creating an “express lane” within the internet will result in a series of cloistered or “walled” networks, run by telephone and cable service providers, which is contrary to the open internet model currently in operation.