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5G now a matter of national security, Trump administration decides

26 December 2017 by Steve Blum
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Telecommunications is one of the sorts of infrastructure that the Trump administration wants to improve, but its interest seems limited to upgrading wireless infrastructure for eventual 5G service. That support might only include regulatory reform, particularly federal preemption of state and local laws and property rights, rather than money.

It’s hard to tell exactly what the Trump administration means when it puts out statements about spending plans, telecommunications or otherwise. And it’s impossible to know what congress will ultimately do.… More

Challenges to FCC net neutrality decision will wait until next year

24 December 2017 by Steve Blum
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The Federal Communications Commission isn’t celebrating Christmas the way it did Thanksgiving this year. Instead of leaving us with a massive document dump before heading home for the holiday, the FCC went into the long weekend without releasing the final text of its decision to strip broadband service of common carrier status and, in the process, scrap network neutrality rules.

So for now, the decision isn’t in effect yet and any formal opposition is on hold.… More

Goodbye network neutrality, hello Internet openness

21 December 2017 by Steve Blum
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A limited resurrection of network neutrality rules is under consideration in the U.S. house of representatives, with emphasis on limited. This effort has a realistic chance of success, unlike most of the political reaction to last week’s Federal Communications Commission decision to scrap network neutrality rules and end broadband’s status as a common carrier service.

Introduced by Marsha Blackburn (R – Tennessee) and co-signed by 15 of her fellow republicans, house resolution 4682 reads like it was written by a Comcast lobbyist.… More

California's new broadband cop talks tough but takes cash from telecoms lobbyists

18 December 2017 by Steve Blum
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The end of network neutrality and other common carrier rules throws broadband companies back under general consumer protection laws. Those are enforced, as Federal Communications Commission chair Ajit Pai put it, by “our nation’s premier consumer protection cop”, the Federal Trade Commission, and by state attorneys general.

In California, that’s Xavier Becerra, appointed by governor Jerry Brown when Kamala Harris moved to the U.S. senate. He has sole responsibility for anti-trust law enforcement and shares consumer protection duties with county prosecutors.… More

Frontier's two buck suck tests FCC's consumer protection claims

16 December 2017 by Steve Blum
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Frontier Communication’s broadband customers might want to take up the offer of fierce consumer fraud protection that the Federal Communication Commission made as it issued its network belligerence decision this week. They thought they were getting broadband service at a stated price, but Frontier surprised them by adding a $2 “Internet infrastructure surcharge” to their bills. Because it could.

The charge is an attempt by Frontier to advertise a low price for broadband service, while charging a higher one.… More

The Internet goes from ping to Pong as big cable, telcos take control

15 December 2017 by Steve Blum
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Pay to play.

A brief pause for a bomb threat aside, yesterday’s Federal Communications Commission vote to end broadband’s common carrier status as a telecommunications service, and net neutrality rules with it, went as expected. The three republican commissioners voted in favor of the change, the two democrats voted against and all five made speeches explaining why they were voting the way they always said they would vote (links below). There was no indication that the final order approved yesterday differed significantly – or at all – from the draft published three weeks ago.… More

"The fix was already in": net neutrality ends on party line FCC vote

14 December 2017 by Steve Blum
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By a vote of three republicans to two democrats, the Federal Communications Commission declared that broadband is not a telecommunications service this morning. Broadband’s common carrier status is gone and network neutrality rules have been scrapped. If the FCC follows recent practice, the full text of the decision will be released in the next few days, but the draft was published three weeks ago and there’s no indication at this point that any significant changes were made.… More

No last minute reprieve, no surprises as FCC heads for net neutrality vote

13 December 2017 by Steve Blum
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There seems no stopping the Federal Communications Commission’s republican majority plan to end broadband’s status as a common carrier service and, as a result, kill network neutrality obligations for service providers. The decision is scheduled for tomorrow morning, and FCC chair Ajit Pai has either ignored or explicitly rejected the three main arguments for delaying a vote.

One of those arguments should be ignored. Much has been made about the spam submitted along with substantive comments on the issue.… More

End of net neutrality means more corporate control of Central Coast media and speech

10 December 2017 by Steve Blum
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I was asked to write a piece on net neutrality from a Central Coast perspective, for Santa Cruz TechBeat, and thought it might be worth reposting here, with some minor updating…

The Federal Communications Commission is on a fast and narrow track to repeal network neutrality rules and declare broadband industry regulation off limits. The three republican commissioners say they’ll vote on Thursday to scrap the broadband regulatory regime enacted during the Obama administration, also on a 3 to 2 party line vote.… More

Comcast, AT&T have the traffic cones ready for Internet slow lanes

8 December 2017 by Steve Blum
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AT&T and Comcast are offering two good reasons for keeping broadband under the common carrier regulatory umbrella, and not scraping network neutrality rules. Not that they meant to do that. It’s just their nature.

Comcast is backing away from an unconditional promise to abide by net neutrality principles, regardless of whether or not federal rules require it to do so. That pledge was made in 2014, while Comcast was in the middle of an unsuccessful attempt to add cable systems owned by Time Warner and Charter Communications to its portfolio.… More