The U.S. Senate will soon be voting on a bill that could provide consumers with a choice in cable-television service providers. After years of rising cable prices because of a lack of choices, we are on the verge of a competitive video-cable TV market that will reduce prices and improve services. The new law would create this competition by making it just as easy for telephone companies to provide video service as it is for cable-Internet companies to provide phone service.

Meanwhile, Sen. Olympia Snowe is focused on so-called “Net neutrality.” Hopefully, Sen. Susan Collins will see that we don’t need to fix what isn’t broken. This is especially true now that a compromise has been developed in the telecommunications legislation that provides an “Internet Consumer Bill of Rights” to ensure that we will all have continued access to our favorite Web sites. The Internet should otherwise be free of government regulation that will impede the market, slow innovation and diminish investment in new broadband infrastructure.

Regardless of their individual positions on “Net neutrality,” Sens. Snowe and Collins will be important players in the final outcome of the Telecommunications Act of 2006. It is important to let them know that more competition among cable television providers will be good for consumers.

Jody Dickey

Hampden