Former Comcast and Verizon Attorneys Now Manage the FCC and Are About to Kill the Internet

roadrunner2012

Four hours in the mod queue for a news link
Troll
And this is why Republican's should not be elected for anything, until they decide to represent the people. Corporations are NOT people, my friend.

Democrats are only marginally better, but better, nonetheless. Libertarians are even worse than Republicans.

Get money out of politics.
 

moreluck

golden ticket member
BeeleN20140518A_low.jpg
 

roadrunner2012

Four hours in the mod queue for a news link
Troll
Via Reddit:


House Vote for Net Neutrality

For Against
Rep 0 236
Dem 178
5


Senate Vote for Net Neutrality

For Against
Rep 0 46
Dem 52
0


In fact, the 2012 GOP Platform states the party is against Net Neutrality.

(Something about railroads)

Today's technology and telecommunications industries are overseen by the Federal Communications Commission, established in 1934 and given the jurisdiction over telecommunications formerly assigned to the Interstate Commerce Commission, which had been created in 1887 to regulate the railroads. This is not a good fit.

The current Administration has been frozen in the past. It has conducted no auction of spectrum, has offered no incentives for investment, and, through the FCC's net neutrality rule, is trying to micromanage telecom as if it were a railroad network.
 

oldngray

nowhere special
The whole problem is Wheeler and the FCC are out of control. This is an issue that they should not have touched but now they have what is more important is if telecoms are regulated how much wiggle room will be left for companies like AT&T and Comcast to price gouge consumers. If they maintain so called net neutrality it looks like there will be ways to bend the rules with things like data caps and increased prices. Most of the proposed laws in Congress seem mostly attempts to limit the damage the FCC can cause instead of addressing the problem more directly by targeting the FCC itself.
 

BrownBrokeDown

Well-Known Member
My personal belief... American politics are toxic because we are lazy and get into tribal thinking. Both parties are full of poorly thought through policies that receive support based upon reactionary responses.

It is not about republican or democrat. We can all be more well informed than the simplified and biased info that those 2 political agendas try to feed us.
This x 1000. Best post I have read on any website in the last year.
 

roadrunner2012

Four hours in the mod queue for a news link
Troll
Still not one Republican on board, though they are lining up legislation to make sure that Net neutrality is overturned.
 

cheryl

I started this.
Staff member
Cable Companies Are Astroturfing Fake Consumer Support to End Net Neutrality - Vice

A disclosure obtained by VICE from the National Cable and Telecom Association (NCTA), a trade group for ISPs, shows that the bulk of Broadband for America's recent $3.5 million budget is funded through a $2 million donation from NCTA. Last month, Broadband for America wrote a letter to the FCC bluntly demanding that the agency “categorically reject” any effort toward designating broadband as a public utility. It wasn't signed by any internet consumer advocates, as the Sununu-Ford letter suggests. The signatures on the letter reads like a who's who of ISP industry presidents and CEOs, including AT&T's Randall Stephenson, Cox Communications' Patrick Esser, NCTA president (and former FCC commissioner) Michael Powell, Verizon's Lowell McAdam, and Comcast's Brian Roberts.

Notably, Broadband for America's most recent tax filing shows that it retained the DCI Group, an infamous lobbying firm that specializes in creating fake citizen groups on behalf of corporate campaigns.
 

roadrunner2012

Four hours in the mod queue for a news link
Troll
DCI, a Republican PR firm that has done work for big oil, big tobacco and fudi Christian organizations.

Great. The Republicans are doing all they can to block net neutrality.
 

cheryl

I started this.
Staff member
FCC’s awful website crashes on last day for initial net neutrality comments - Ars Technica

Today is the last day to file initial comments on the Federal Communications Commission's network neutrality proposal, and the FCC's ancient technology is unable to handle the load.

Unfortunately, the FCC is using an 18-year-old system to accept comments. "When the ECFS [Electronic Comment Filing System] was created in 1996, the Commission presumably didn’t imagine it would receive more than 100,000 electronic comments on a single telecommunications issue," FCC Chief Information Officer David Bray wrote in a blog post yesterday.
 

Sportello

Well-Known Member
From Huffington Post:
On Monday, President Barack Obama came out in favor of the "strongest possible rules to protect net neutrality," endorsing a popular proposal that would empower the Federal Communications Commission to require Internet service providers to treat all web traffic equally and not charge content providers for better access.

"We cannot allow Internet service providers to restrict the best access or to pick winners and losers in the online marketplace for services and ideas," Obama said in a statement.
 

Sportello

Well-Known Member
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 10, 2014

Statement by the President on Net Neutrality
An open Internet is essential to the American economy, and increasingly to our very way of life. By lowering the cost of launching a new idea, igniting new political movements, and bringing communities closer together, it has been one of the most significant democratizing influences the world has ever known.

“Net neutrality” has been built into the fabric of the Internet since its creation — but it is also a principle that we cannot take for granted. We cannot allow Internet service providers (ISPs) to restrict the best access or to pick winners and losers in the online marketplace for services and ideas. That is why today, I am asking the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to answer the call of almost 4 million public comments, and implement the strongest possible rules to protect net neutrality.

When I was a candidate for this office, I made clear my commitment to a free and open Internet, and my commitment remains as strong as ever. Four years ago, the FCC tried to implement rules that would protect net neutrality with little to no impact on the telecommunications companies that make important investments in our economy. After the rules were challenged, the court reviewing the rules agreed with the FCC that net neutrality was essential for preserving an environment that encourages new investment in the network, new online services and content, and everything else that makes up the Internet as we now know it. Unfortunately, the court ultimately struck down the rules — not because it disagreed with the need to protect net neutrality, but because it believed the FCC had taken the wrong legal approach.

The FCC is an independent agency, and ultimately this decision is theirs alone. I believe the FCC should create a new set of rules protecting net neutrality and ensuring that neither the cable company nor the phone company will be able to act as a gatekeeper, restricting what you can do or see online. The rules I am asking for are simple, common-sense steps that reflect the Internet you and I use every day, and that some ISPs already observe. These bright-line rules include:

· No blocking. If a consumer requests access to a website or service, and the content is legal, your ISP should not be permitted to block it. That way, every player — not just those commercially affiliated with an ISP — gets a fair shot at your business.

· No throttling. Nor should ISPs be able to intentionally slow down some content or speed up others — through a process often called “throttling” — based on the type of service or your ISP’s preferences.

· Increased transparency. The connection between consumers and ISPs — the so-called “last mile” — is not the only place some sites might get special treatment. So, I am also asking the FCC to make full use of the transparency authorities the court recently upheld, and if necessary to apply net neutrality rules to points of interconnection between the ISP and the rest of the Internet.

· No paid prioritization. Simply put: No service should be stuck in a “slow lane” because it does not pay a fee. That kind of gatekeeping would undermine the level playing field essential to the Internet’s growth. So, as I have before, I am asking for an explicit ban on paid prioritization and any other restriction that has a similar effect.

If carefully designed, these rules should not create any undue burden for ISPs, and can have clear, monitored exceptions for reasonable network management and for specialized services such as dedicated, mission-critical networks serving a hospital. But combined, these rules mean everything for preserving the Internet’s openness.

The rules also have to reflect the way people use the Internet today, which increasingly means on a mobile device. I believe the FCC should make these rules fully applicable to mobile broadband as well, while recognizing the special challenges that come with managing wireless networks.

To be current, these rules must also build on the lessons of the past. For almost a century, our law has recognized that companies who connect you to the world have special obligations not to exploit the monopoly they enjoy over access in and out of your home or business. That is why a phone call from a customer of one phone company can reliably reach a customer of a different one, and why you will not be penalized solely for calling someone who is using another provider. It is common sense that the same philosophy should guide any service that is based on the transmission of information — whether a phone call, or a packet of data.

So the time has come for the FCC to recognize that broadband service is of the same importance and must carry the same obligations as so many of the other vital services do. To do that, I believe the FCC should reclassify consumer broadband service under Title II of the Telecommunications Act — while at the same time forbearing from rate regulation and other provisions less relevant to broadband services. This is a basic acknowledgment of the services ISPs provide to American homes and businesses, and the straightforward obligations necessary to ensure the network works for everyone — not just one or two companies.

Investment in wired and wireless networks has supported jobs and made America the center of a vibrant ecosystem of digital devices, apps, and platforms that fuel growth and expand opportunity. Importantly, network investment remained strong under the previous net neutrality regime, before it was struck down by the court; in fact, the court agreed that protecting net neutrality helps foster more investment and innovation. If the FCC appropriately forbears from the Title II regulations that are not needed to implement the principles above — principles that most ISPs have followed for years — it will help ensure new rules are consistent with incentives for further investment in the infrastructure of the Internet.

The Internet has been one of the greatest gifts our economy — and our society — has ever known. The FCC was chartered to promote competition, innovation, and investment in our networks. In service of that mission, there is no higher calling than protecting an open, accessible, and free Internet. I thank the Commissioners for having served this cause with distinction and integrity, and I respectfully ask them to adopt the policies I have outlined here, to preserve this technology’s promise for today, and future generations to come.
 

cheryl

I started this.
Staff member
From Huffington Post:
On Monday, President Barack Obama came out in favor of the "strongest possible rules to protect net neutrality," endorsing a popular proposal that would empower the Federal Communications Commission to require Internet service providers to treat all web traffic equally and not charge content providers for better access.

"We cannot allow Internet service providers to restrict the best access or to pick winners and losers in the online marketplace for services and ideas," Obama said in a statement.

I appreciate that this alias of roadrunner2012 has posted this and also the whitehouse press release. The following cartoon draws attention to Obama's actions prior to issuing this statement.

netneutrality.png


Time will tell if Obama's statement of support for net neutrality is going to make any difference at this late point in the process. I hope it does.
 
Top