Reporting

Nearly six in 10 (58%) of mobile users in a nationwide mobile data plan survey would switch mobile services providers if they had more choice and control regarding how they used their data. That includes those with unlimited mobile data plans, according to the survey conducted by digital commerce technology provider Matrixx Software. Yet more revealing, more than half said they would switch data plans at least once a month if they could choose the plan they believe best meets their needs. Some said they would do so as often as once a day.

[Commentary] Montana GOP congressional candidate Greg Gianforte said of a Guardian reporter, “The last guy did the same damn thing.” From the looks of things, “the same damn thing” appears to boil down to asking questions of the candidate. Polite and relevant questions: Are they what had made Gianforte so “sick and tired”? Are polite and relevant questions what he was bemoaning when he talked about “the same damn thing”? Speaking of the news media as the people’s enemy and singling out reporters in menacing fashion at public events are both aspects of Trump’s trickle-down authoritarianism. He has done both. For decades, Republican candidates talked and talked and talked about the ravages of the so-called liberal media. Historians may look back at recent events — the manhandling of reporter Michelle Fields by a Trump campaign aide last year; the Jacobs confrontation — as the beginning of an action phase.

For those concerned about press freedom, the first months of the Trump administration have been troubling. Journalists have been yelled at, pepper-sprayed, pinned by security, and even arrested on the job. Now, one reporter has accused a Republican candidate of assault. Joel Simon, the executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, said the recent episodes were not enough to make any sweeping statements about the way journalists are being treated since President Trump took office. “But what’s certainly unprecedented in modern American history is the rhetoric: the way that Trump talks about the media, the constant verbal attacks and the framing of journalists as enemies and purveyors of fake news,” he said. Simon said the committee was gathering data to identify trends and patterns. He said the assault case was particularly alarming.

More than a dozen people sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission saying that their names and contact information were improperly used as part of a widespread political campaign meant to discredit the commission's network neutrality rules. Calling on the FCC to investigate and delete the "dishonest and deceitful" messages made in their name, the citizens said officials cannot afford to ignore the flood of fake comments apparently designed "to manufacture false support for your plan to repeal net neutrality protections."

"To see my good name used to present an opinion diametrically opposed to my own view on Net Neutrality makes me feel sad and violated," said Joel Mullaney, one of the people who signed the letter. "Whoever did this violated one of the most basic norms of our democratic society, that each of us have our own voice, and I am eager to know from what source the FCC obtained this falsified affidavit. I have been slandered."

Now that the Federal Communications Commission has released its official proposal to repeal network neutrality rules, Democrats are vowing to fight that measure in the courts, at the Federal Communications Commission, and in the realm of public opinion.

Sensing they've hit on a white-hot campaign issue, Democrats are seeking to stir up a grass-roots firestorm around net neutrality that can thwart the GOP plan — or at least make it incredibly costly for Republicans to support. Democrats argue that Republicans want to strip consumers of key online protections and hand more power back to large Internet providers, and liken the issue to another hot-button topic: former president Obama's health-care law. “The more the public understands about what the Trump administration is trying to do to net neutrality, they'll understand that it's the same thing they're trying to do to the Affordable Care Act, to the Clean Air Act, to gun safety laws — and net neutrality is just another part of the very same story,” said Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA).

By raising the issue of net neutrality to the level of health care, Democrats such as Sen Markey appear to believe they're in for similar victories on net neutrality. The decision reflects a doubling-down on a populist strategy — and it reflects how deeply they are convinced the public is already on their side.

In 2016, with the help of a program called ConnectHome -- a partnership between EveryoneOn and the Department of Housing and Urban Development -- the Choctaw Nation connected every single rental housing property in Talihina to low-cost internet service. Choctaw Nation was one of 28 pilot cities to join the ConnectHome initiative back in 2015. The Obama-era program has since connected some 20,000 people in those cities to the internet, and distributed more than 7,000 smartphones and laptops, funded with in-kind contributions and donations from internet providers and advocacy groups.

Now EveryoneOn is announcing its plans to take over the ConnectHome program from HUD and expand its efforts to close the digital divide in more than 100 communities, both rural and urban, by 2020. HUD will still serve on the group’s advisory board, but will no longer manage it day to day. The new entity, rebranded ConnectHome Nation, is an effort not only to grow the program but to protect it from the often mercurial whims of Washington.

On May 31 T-Mobile will launch Digits, a revamp of how T-Mobile phone numbers work, virtualizing customer numbers so they can work across multiple devices.

It sounds a lot like Google Voice—rather than having a phone number tied to a single SIM card or a device, numbers are now account-based, and you can "log in" to your phone number on several devices. T-Mobile says the new phone number system will work "across virtually all connected devices," allowing multiple phones, tablets, and PCs to get texts and calls. This means T-Mobile needs apps across all those platforms, with the press release citing "native seamless integration" in Samsung Android phones, Android and iOS apps, and a browser interface for PCs. The new phone number system is free to all T-Mobile customers. Customers can also buy an extra phone number for $10 or by signing up to the $5-per-month "T-Mobile One Plus" package, which is a bundle of extra features like a mobile hotspot and in-flight Wi-Fi. Here, the "extra number" use case matches what Google Voice users have been doing for years: a personal and business number, or a number to give to online sales sites like Craigslist, or an easily dumpable number for your Tinder dates.

As part of its broader investigation into potential collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, the FBI continues to examine how Carter Page joined the campaign and what conversations he may have had with Russian officials about the effort to interfere with the election — with or without the knowledge of Donald Trump and his team — according to people familiar with the matter. The Senate Intelligence Committee has also zeroed in on Page, asking him for records of all his contacts with Russians during the campaign, all financial interactions he had with Russia and all communications he had with Trump campaign staff.

The circumstances that led to Page’s easy access to the Trump campaign represents one of the main questions facing investigators: Were Trump’s connections to multiple Russia-friendly advisers mere coincidence, or evidence of a coordinated attempt to collude with a foreign government? Or were they the result of incompetent vetting that left a neophyte candidate vulnerable to influence from people with nefarious agendas? Regardless of the answer, the campaign’s previously unreported procedures for vetting Page and other advisers are greatly complicating matters for Trump’s presidency.

Oracle plans to send a letter voicing its support of House telecom subcommittee Chairman Marsha Blackburn's (R-TN) new privacy bill. The recently introduced legislation would require both Internet service providers and so-called edge providers including Google and Facebook to develop opt-in policies for users to share their sensitive information, including browsing histories. Oracle senior vice president Ken Glueck said the bill creates parity among industries and also starts discussion on what should be considered sensitive information. "I think in my mind, location information is far more sensitive than web browsing," Glueck said. "But that's a debate that has to be had."

AT&T also offered support: "We have always said consumers expect their online data to be protected by a comprehensive and uniform privacy framework that applies across the entire internet ecosystem and includes operating systems, browsers, devices, ISPs, apps, online services and advertising networks," spokesman Michael Balmoris said, adding that, "We support Chairwoman Blackburn for moving the discussion in that direction, and we look forward to working with her as this legislation moves forward." USTelecom and CTIA had no comment at this time. Mobile Future did not respond to a request for comment. Meanwhile, the Internet Association is set to huddle with Chairman Blackburn. The group has already shared its opposition to the legislation and said that the bill has the potential to "upend the consumer experience online and stifle innovation."

Not to be deterred, Chairman Blackburn called out consumers as well in her response to these critiques. "I thought the Internet Association would be more supportive of protecting consumers," she said. "I think if you ask the American people if they're OK with having less control over their online privacy so companies can sell their data - they'd say no."

The Electronic Frontier Foundation also said it wouldn't support the bill in its current form, pointing to its preemption of state user privacy laws and the uniform treatment of ISPs and online companies as problematic. "The complications that the bill create by treating everything the same really stems from the fact that these are really different industry sectors and the markets are extraordinarily different," EFF legislative counsel Ernesto Falcon said. "It's an open field on the internet. People have choices, and new companies are coming in all the time. That's not the case at all when you're talking about broadband access."

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) is considering some sort of Senate version of the legislation and we can now add Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) to that list as well. "Sen. Daines worked in the private sector for over 12 years and understands the importance of protecting personally identifiable information," an aide from his office said in an email. "Steve is looking into this proposal and discussing it with Montana stakeholders."

The rules of broadband are changing, and local governments want a say in how they evolve.

In an ex parte filing l with the Federal Communications Commission, several municipal officials, along with a representative of the National League of Cities, outlined a recent meeting with FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn and a member of her legal staff. The city officials voiced their concern that the newly-formed Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee (BDAC) is lacking in representation from local municipal governments, and that industry executives and advisors make up an overwhelming proportion of the committee's membership. According to the letter, the officials "encouraged the Commission to work in the direction of partnership with, rather than preemption of, local officials, who share the Commission's goal of closing the digital divide."

The National League of Cities notes that more local representatives have been appointed to BDAC working groups of late, but the organization argues that working group participation isn't enough and that the Commission should "increase the number and diversity of local officials on the BDAC to a level comparable with the number and diversity of industry officials."