Net neutrality advocates are pleased to see an actual bill emerging, as Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) introduced the Internet Non-Discrimination Act of 2006 this week. As it’s becoming clear that there won’t be any net neutrality clauses included in the upcoming Telecom Act rewrite, neutrality proponents have pushed forward an independent bill addressing the issue. Russell Shaw has provided scans of the entire text of the bill, along with some comments that Wyden provided in a conference call with reporters. (The audio file of the conference call is also available on Senator Wyden’s web site).

As usual, IP Democracy has an astute summary of the bill and the challenges ahead for any kind of net neutrality legislation:

During the call, Wyden was a forceful defender of the open Internet but, like so many net neutrality advocates, didn’t handle well questions regarding what kinds of specific market-based transactions would run afoul of the proposed legislation.

Wyden said his bill is “designed to make sure our country doesn’t face an information superhighway that is strewn with discriminatory hurdles. Unless you treat equal content with equal treatment, it seems to me the genius of the Internet will be undermined.”

He tried to dispel a misconception about his legislation; namely that it would bar the sale of different tiers of broadband service. “My legislation is still going to allow consumers to purchase higher speeds,” he said.

Wyden was questioned by reporters on several variations of the following question: What would be wrong with allowing a content provider to pay the operator for some kind of enhanced delivery given that under this scenario, the cost burden would shift away from the consumer and toward the content provider?