USAToday

Donald Trump Jr. goes after 'outrage' following net neutrality repeal

Donald Trump Jr. went after critics of the Federal Communications Commission's decision to rescind net neutrality rules, challenging critics to explain net neutrality. “I would pay good money to see all those people complaining about Obama’s FCC chairman voting to repeal #NetNeutality actually explain it in detail,” Trump Jr. tweeted. “I’d also bet most hadn’t heard of it before this week. #outrage.”

Federal regulators weigh whether to unmask online political ad buyers

Political advertisements on Facebook would have to include disclaimers showing who paid for them, under legal opinions the nation’s federal election regulators are taking up Thursday. If the Federal Election Commission (FEC) votes to adopt the requirement at its Dec 14 meeting, it would mark the first federal move to formally regulate political advertising on social media following revelations that Kremlin-tied groups used ads on Facebook and other platforms in an effort to sway the 2016 presidential election.

Former ethics adviser files complaint against Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway

The dispute over Roy Moore's Senate campaign has now led to a legal complaint against White House adviser Kellyanne Conway. Walter Shaub, a former government ethics official and frequent critic of President Donald Trump, said Conway's comments about Moore's Democratic challenger Doug Jones may be a violation of the Hatch Act, which forbids federal employees from getting involved in elections. Shaub said he filed a complaint with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel.  "She’s standing in front of the White House.

Google stops secretly tracking cellular location info

Google is ending a practice in which certain Android cellphone location information was captured, following an online investigation that raised questions about how the information might impact your privacy.  The report states that software on Android phones gathers location data and sends it back to Google, even if you’ve actively turned off location settings on your phone, haven’t used any apps, or even if you haven’t inserted a SIM card from your carrier.

NHMC warns Verizon of possible protest over Univision blackout

The National Hispanic Media Coalition is threatening to rally Latino leaders against Verizon for its removal of Univision from the Verizon Fios service. Verizon's blackout comes as the country recovers from Hurricane Katia and a pair of earthquakes, all of which hit in September.

What a potential T-Mobile-Sprint merger means for you

Speculation that T-Mobile and Sprint might pair up is mounting thanks to comments from both wireless carriers' executives, raising questions about what such a merger might mean for consumers who have largely benefited from the fierce competition that has come to define the business. Apparently, the nation’s third- and fourth-largest wireless carriers—and/or parent companies Deutsch Telekom and SoftBank— are already engaged in such informal discussions. Mobile users have been the beneficiaries of price wars surrounding "unlimited" data plans, among other goodies competition has thrust their way. Prices for various plans could rise, or at least not fall as much, if a deal goes through. But getting bigger is attractive for these companies and their parents because of the scale and potential synergies that they bring.

John Oliver may have helped spur 150,000 comments to FCC on network neutrality

Nearly 200,000 people have already commented on network neutrality to the Federal Communications Commission — many likely spurred on by HBO's John Oliver. The comedian and host of the premium pay-TV channel's Last Week Tonight With John Oliver urged viewers to go to the FCC's web site to voice their support for current net neutrality regulations passed in 2015. The FCC had prepared for a new round of public comment after FCC Chairman Ajit Pai began the process of reconsidering the net neutrality rules, which require Internet service providers to treat all legal content equally. When the rules were being debated three years ago, Oliver's encouragement to file comments to the FCC during a June 2014 episode crashed the agency's site. On his latest episode, which debuted Sunday night, Oliver urged viewers with a Shakespearean, "once more into the breach." They apparently responded, with net neutrality comments rising from about 30,000 Monday morning to more than 184,650 by midday May 9.

Did network neutrality keep broadband out of low-income neighborhoods?

A big reason current network neutrality rules need to get the boot, says Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai, is that they're curbing broadband investment in low-income neighborhoods — cutting off important information and services 21st-century citizens access via high-speed Internet. But were these 2015 rules, which aimed to prevent companies that bring Internet into homes from favoring their own content over others, really the culprit?

A review of broadband investment over the past two years paints a more complicated picture. One study of the largest carriers, the basis Pai’s claim, does show investment fell over the two-year period the rules were in effect. But that was largely due to AT&T. It's blamed the Open Internet rules for decreased broadband investment. Analysts point out, however, that like other large carriers it was engaged in a competitive shift that likely played a role — two mammoth acquisitions including the $85.4 billion deal for Time Warner. At the same time, Comcast — another big spender of broadband investment — increased its outlays by double digits. "You are going to hear a lot of posturing when it comes to the attempts to stifle some of those regulations," said Tuna Amobi, an equity analyst at CFRA Research who tracks companies such as Comcast and Charter Communications (which want the rules repealed) and Netflix (which supports them).

"What we saw ultimately was that, frankly, it was more or less a lot of noise," Amobi said. The market is simply too competitive not to invest, he says. "No one wants to be left behind."

T-Mobile says it will be first in nation to offer nationwide mobile 5G

T-Mobile announced its intentions to build the nation’s first mobile “5G” wireless network, and is planning to use its recent haul in the Federal Communications Commission spectrum auction to pull it off. “We’re going to run at it and run at it hard,” said T-Mobile chief technology officer Neville Ray, who expects the company’s 5G rollout to begin in 2019, with a target of 2020 for full nationwide coverage. Rivals Verizon Wireless and AT&T also have designs on building out the next generation of wireless. “But we’re saying that you’re going to see it at T-Mobile first,” Ray claims.