A bill allowing telecom providers to provide pay-television services more easily has been approved by a key congressional panel.

The House Commerce Committee voted 42-12 in favor of the new legislation, which grants national franchising privileges to telephone companies like AT&T and Verizon. This represents a major victory for these big telecom giants, which have spent billions to build ultra-fast internet-based television networks, only to face lengthy and expensive franchising licenses in each city they hope to serve.

Ultimately, this will also be beneficial to customer’s, by increasing competition in the cable television market, and potentially driving down consumer service costs.

The bill did not, however, include a provision to protect the principal of net neutrality, and stop telecom providers from creating a paid “fast lane” for preferential internet traffic. Without such a restriction, consumer advocates worry that ISPs could demand payment from high traffic websites, and effectively drive competitors, including VoIP providers and internet video companies out of business.

Many lawmakers claim that net neutrality is too hard to define, and that web traffic discrimination isn’t providing any major threat to internet-based businesses.

By taking such a standpoint, these representatives are showing that they either don’t understand the nature of the problem, or are just procrastinating. If telephone companies are allowed to regulate internet traffic, they will be able to effectively change the free nature of the web, and charge internet companies like Google with crippling fees, simply for the privilege of operating.