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The House of Representatives' Judiciary Committee voted 20-13 in favour of the Internet Freedom and Nondiscrimination Bill, which is designed to preserve Net neutrality.

For example, ISPs will not be able to block media content from other providers, or prioritise their own by allocating it extra bandwidth. Advocates argue that the law change is the only way to ensure competition when, in many areas of the US, there is no choice of service provider.

The bill has also received the backing of Internet inventor Tim Berners-Lee.

'I hope that the US will come to the right decision and there is a very strong groundswell of opinion for Net neutrality, he told the 15th International World Wide Web conference, WWW2006, in Scotland.

However service providers have condemned the bill, saying it will raise the cost of providing broadband services.