Say goodbye to cheap bandwidth! Yesterday, the telecom companies shot down the net neutrality provisions that Internet giants hoped for. A former FCC chief of staff says no telecom bill this year is likely to include these provisions, which would prevent the companies running the Internet's cable and DSL connections from charging sites for the full bandwidth use everyone currently enjoys.

And why did the Internet giants lose their battle against the telcos? BusinessWeek blames poor lobbying efforts.

PodestaMattoon is the bipartisan firm retained by Google last year for $40,000 to help it address "Internet Access Issues" in Congress, according to public filings. But that's not keeping PodestaMattoon from working for BellSouth (recently purchased by AT&T), Alcatel (ALA), and the U.S. Telecommunications Assoc. on the Net neutrality issue. Google didn't respond to e-mails seeking comment.

Those million little details Google's known for screwing up? Hiring lobbyists batting for the other team — that'd be one of them.

Web Titans' D.C. Blues [BusinessWeek]