fcc

Net neutrality on a fast track to oblivion at FCC

6 February 2017 by Steve Blum
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No doubt about intentions.

In his short time as Federal Communications Commission chairman, Ajit Pai hasn’t actually said he’s going to scrap the 2015 decision to classify broadband as a common carrier service, and with it the network neutrality rules that depend on it. But in comments he made last week and in the substance of his big news dump on Friday, it’s clear that he’s moving quickly in that direction.

Among the actions announced late Friday afternoon was the cancellation of investigations into the zero rating practices of AT&T, Comcast, Verizon and T-Mobile.… More

FCC chair Pai buries transparency pledge with a big dump

5 February 2017 by Steve Blum
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Under orders from new republican chairman Ajit Pai, Federal Communications Commission staff issued orders and sent letters rescinding several recent actions on Friday afternoon. In what democratic commissioner Mignon Clyburn blasted as a “Friday news dump” and Pai praised as “revoking midnight regulations”, the FCC cancelled or pulled back…

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FCC backs away from market intervention, consumer roles

3 February 2017 by Steve Blum
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Goodbye to all that.

Wholesale broadband prices won’t be regulated and there will be no committees deciding which apps can bypass set top boxes and directly access cable company bit streams. That’s the practical effect of the decision by new Federal Communications Commission chairman Ajit Pai to pull two controversial proposed rules off of the list of items on circulation and under active consideration by commissioners.

Rules that would have set rates for some wholesale services and allow consumers to watch video programming on their own devices without renting a set top box were on the FCC’s agenda last fall, and nearly came to a vote.… More

Don't subsidise fiber, just give the money to AT&T says FCC commissioner

2 February 2017 by Steve Blum
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The new FCC stands up for broadband.

Broadband has no place any big, federal infrastructure spending bill, according to a key member of the Federal Communications Commission. Michael O’Rielly is the other republican on the commission, in addition to new chairman Ajit Pai, and the more dogmatic of the two.

In a blog post published yesterday, he excoriated previous broadband grant programs, urged colleagues to “salute the work already done by private broadband companies” and endorsed the FCC’s incumbent-centric rural subsidy program, which is designed to accomodate AT&T’s 10 Mbps down/1 Mbps up wireless service.… More

Broadband deployment is a local problem, and the FCC is here to help

1 February 2017 by Steve Blum
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Top. Men.

Cities and counties will be getting a ton of advice from the Federal Communications Commission. Yesterday, in one of his first initiatives as chairman, Ajit Pai announced the formation of an industry committee charged with identifying “regulatory barriers to infrastructure investment and to make recommendations to the Commission on reducing and/or removing them”.

But he’s not firing up his weed whacker for a run at the FCC’s rulebook. Instead, he’s taking aim at local governments.… More

Unexpected U-turn as FCC lets New York manage broadband subsidy money

30 January 2017 by Steve Blum
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By Metropolitan Transportation Authority of the State of New York (IMG_4305_4) [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
The new federalism.

Who would have thought that the Federal Communications Commission’s first significant decision of the Trump era would be to take money originally designated for its no-incumbent-left-behind broadband subsidy program – Connect America Fund 2 (CAF-2) – and use it to top up reasonably competitive state grants, with the state calling the shots?

But that’s exactly what happened.

In 2015, Verizon turned down the CAF-2 money on offer in its wireline territory, except for the systems that it was selling to Frontier Communications, which did want it.… More

Trump's broadband policy has direction, but no destination

29 January 2017 by Steve Blum
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The few clues about broadband policy to surface during the Trump administration’s first, tumultuous week can be summed up in two words: hands off. Every time a choice was made that touched on broadband, the administration opted for less federal involvement, rather than more.

The white house made one big appointment and offered two hints about where broadband policy is going. President Trump picked Ajit Pai to be the next chairman of the FCC.… More

Pai gets the call as weed-whacker-in-chief

24 January 2017 by Steve Blum
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Mainstream, of a sort.

Ajit Pai is the new chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, as predicted. An explicit announcement hasn’t been released – at least not as of earlier this morning – but Pai posted a thank you note and his colleagues have offered official congratulations, so take it as a given.

The appointment appears to be permanent. The FCC’s website has an historical listing of commissioners and chairs, and Pai is designated as “chairman”, while Mignon Clyburn, who held down the job while Tom Wheeler was awaiting confirmation in 2013, is listed as “acting chairwoman”.… More

Jumped or pushed, Wheeler falls down the memory hole

22 January 2017 by Steve Blum
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It seems the finger was loaded.

Friday was a holiday for federal employees in the Washington, DC area, but even so, someone was busy updating the Federal Communications Commission’s website. Tom Wheeler, the former chairman of the FCC, is now an unperson, “vaporised” and “effectively erased from existence”, as the Ministry of Truth would describe it. If the Ministry of Truth was actually in the business of describing anything.

As of today, the commission’s leadership page lists only three commissioners – Mignon Clyburn, Michael O’Rielly and caudillo-in-waiting Ajit Pai – and makes no mention of a chair, past, present or future.… More

Local agencies get more time to ponder FCC's wireless weed whacker

17 January 2017 by Steve Blum
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There’s more time to chime in on whether the Federal Communications Commission should consider further preemption of local authority over cell sites and other wireless facilities. Last month, the FCC moved forward on a request to do so made by Mobilitie, a wireless infrastructure company that has pushed the boundaries of ethics, if not legality, and the English language in its aggressive pursuit of permission to, among other things, plant towers in public right of ways.… More