Big telecom drops lawyers and lobbyists on California’s net neutrality law

5 October 2018 by Steve Blum
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Lobbying front organisations for AT&T, Charter, Comcast, Frontier and mobile carriers joined forces to mount another legal challenge to California’s new network neutrality law on Wednesday. The four are the American Cable Association (ACA), the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA), the National Cable Television Association (NCTA) and the U.S. Telephone Association (USTelecom) – they keep trying to rebrand themselves, but that’s what the initials originally stood for, and what they’re really about.

They filed a complaint and motion for an injunction in a Sacramento federal court, claiming that the network neutrality law – senate bill 822 – signed by governor Jerry Brown on Sunday is “a classic example of unconstitutional state regulation”.… More

California kicks bots off of social media

4 October 2018 by Steve Blum
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You won’t be able to use an anonymous bot to tweet or boost Twitter profiles, or post items on Facebook in California, beginning next year. Or use a bot that pretends to be a person to try to sell something – including a candidate for office – on high traffic websites.

California governor Jerry Brown signed senate bill 1001 into law. Authored by senator Bob Hertzberg, it’s particularly intended to stop automated social media posts that inject comments – fake or otherwise – into political debates.… More

California’s new muni broadband law establishes rights, and net neutrality responsibility

3 October 2018 by Steve Blum
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California governor Jerry Brown actually signed two network neutrality bills into law on Sunday. The Big Kahuna was senate bill 822, which establishes net neutrality rules for Internet service providers doing business in California. But alongside it was assembly bill 1999, which, among things, requires publicly owned broadband systems to abide by net neutrality principles, whether or not their private competitors have to.

It’s a mixed blessing. On the one hand, it’s good thing for muni broadband systems to operate on a net neutral basis, both from a public policy and a customer service perspective.… More

Court gives California three weeks to defend net neutrality law

2 October 2018 by Steve Blum
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The gears of justice are grinding on California’s newly minted network neutrality law. Yesterday, the federal court in Sacramento gave California attorney general Xavier Becerra three weeks to respond to the Trump adminstration’s attempt to nullify senate bill 822.

Signed Sunday afternoon by governor Jerry Brown, the law reinstates the core elements of the Federal Communications Commission’s 2015 ban on blocking, throttling and paid prioritisation of Internet traffic on the basis of content, and also clarifies that selective zero rating is prohibited.… More

Brown signs SB 822 and establishes Californian net neutrality rules, Trump lawyers hit back

1 October 2018 by Steve Blum
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Sing it, Linda.

Jerry Brown doesn’t have a problem stepping into policy territory claimed by the federal government. He’s signed bills that fly in the face of Trump administration immigration policy, and carved out a place for California in international environmental diplomacy. You can add telecoms policy to that list. Yesterday, he signed senate bill 822 into law. Authored by senator Scott Weiner (D – San Francisco), it reinstates network neutrality rules that were approved by the democratic majority on the Federal Communications Commission in 2015, and quickly scrapped when republicans took over control of the FCC in 2017.… More

Feds launch lawyers at California net neutrality law, on high political alert

30 September 2018 by Steve Blum
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That didn’t take long.

Less than two hours after the announcement that governor Jerry Brown signed senate bill 822 and made network neutrality the law of the land in California, the federal government struck back. The federal justice department filed a lawsuit challenging it with the federal district court – the eastern district – that covers Sacramento.

They had their finger on the button. Two filings and the obligatory press release were ready to go. One is a complaint, um, complaining that California “seeks to second-guess the Federal Government’s regulatory approach”.… More

Governor Brown signs California net neutrality law

30 September 2018 by Steve Blum
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Network neutrality is now the law of the land in California. Governor Jerry Brown signed senate bill 822 today. That’s according to a tweet by the bill’s author, senator Scott Wiener, (D – San Francisco).

It reinstates network neutrality rules that were scrapped last year by the Federal Commission. The three bright line rules established by the FCC in 2015 – no blocking, throttling or paid prioritisation of Internet traffic – are back on the books.… More

California net neutrality bill faces midnight deadline

30 September 2018 by Steve Blum
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UPDATE 2:the Trump administration’s political hacks in the justice department were on alert – they challenged SB 822 in federal court. Quickly. Click here for more.

UPDATE: Brown approved SB 822. Click here for more.

Today is decision day for network neutrality in California. Governor Jerry Brown must either sign senate bill 822 into law, or veto it, or simply ignore it and let it become law automatically tonight, when the midnight deadline for acting passes.… More

California’s regulatory review of T-Mobile-Sprint deal has light years left to run

29 September 2018 by Steve Blum
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The proposed purchase of Sprint by T-Mobile will get a thorough workover by the California Public Utilities Commission, and a final decision on whether or not to allow it won’t come until next summer. The commissioner running the review, Clifford Rechtschaffen, laid out the issues that he’ll investigate in a ruling on Friday.

Rechtschaffen had to decide how wide ranging his inquiry will be. Sprint and T-Mobile wanted it to be very narrow, and focus on two particular issues: could a relatively small Sprint subsidiary that does some wireline business in California be sold to T-Mobile, and could T-Mobile take over Sprint’s California mobile carrier registration.… More

FCC backs off on timing, but not substance of municipal wireless property preemption

28 September 2018 by Steve Blum
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The final version of the Federal Communications Commission’s ruling preempting local ownership of street lights, traffic signals and other publicly owned property in the public right of way has been posted. It gives cities and counties more time to comply with its diktats – that’s the major change I spotted last night as I was reading through it.

Originally, the ruling was set to take effect 30 days after it’s published in the Federal Register.… More