Jon Brodkin

A California bill that would impose the nation's strictest state net neutrality law is being replicated in the New York state legislature.

One of the US' most successful mobile broadband providers is acquiring a struggling, smaller competitor, but it needs government approval of the merger. To make their case, the merging companies tell regulators that they can't fully upgrade to the next generation of wireless technology as standalone firms. They must join forces, or US wireless consumers won't benefit from an upgraded network, the companies say.

As streaming video continues to chip away at cable TV subscriber numbers, Comcast is making some of its Internet speed increases available only to customers that pay for both Internet and video service. The week of April 23, Comcast announced speed increases for customers in Houston (TX) and the Oregon/SW Washington areas.

A California bill that would impose the nation's strictest net neutrality law has been approved by another state Senate committee, bringing it closer to passage. The California Senate Judiciary committee approved the bill April 24 in a 5-2 vote, with Democrats supporting the net neutrality rules and Republicans opposing them. The bill was also approved recently by the California Senate Energy, Utilities, and Communications Committee despite protests from AT&T and cable lobbyists.

More than four months after the Federal Communications Commission voted to repeal network neutrality rules, the rules are technically still on the books, and we still don't know when they will die their final death. Why are the rules still in place? There's a technical answer related to how Pai structured the repeal, and there is speculation on why Pai structured it that way.

More than two-thirds of New York City's 3.1 million households have just one or two broadband providers offering service to their homes, according to a new "Truth in Broadband" report issued by the city government. The report comes as NYC pursues a lawsuit against Verizon alleging that it hasn't met its broadband deployment obligations.

Commissioner Mignon Clyburn is leaving the Federal Communications Commission after nine years of service. As part of the FCC's Democratic majority from 2009 through 2016, Commissioner Clyburn repeatedly voted for consumer-protection regulations over the objections of Internet service providers. More recently, Commissioner Clyburn has been on the losing end of many votes as the FCC's new Republican majority deregulates the broadband and telecom industries. Clyburn's term expired in June 2017, but commission rules allowed her to stay until the end of 2018 if she had chosen to do so.

Internet service providers celebrated  when the Federal Communications Commission voted to eliminate nationwide net neutrality rules that prohibit blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization. But now Internet service providers in California are terrified that they could end up facing even stricter rules being considered by the California legislature.

Facebook recently teamed up with Google, Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon in order to kill a privacy law that's being considered in California. The five companies each donated $200,000 to create a $1 million fund to oppose the California Consumer Privacy Act, a ballot question that could be voted on in the November 2018 state election. If approved, the law would make it easier for consumers to find out what information is collected about them and to opt out of the sale or sharing of any personal information.

The Federal Communications Commission's proposed ban on Huawei and ZTE gear in government-funded projects will hurt small Internet providers' efforts to deploy broadband, according to the Rural Wireless Association (RWA), a lobby group for rural Internet service providers. Under FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's proposal, ISPs who use federal money to build or expand broadband service would end up with fewer options for buying network gear. This would "irreparably damage broadband networks (and limit future deployment) in many rural and remote areas throughout the country," the RWA told the FCC.