Network Neutrality

Shortly after coming into office, President Joe Biden moved to restore net neutrality.

The Federal Trade Commission opened a claims process for former AT&T customers who have yet to claim a refund stemming from the FTC’s lawsuit against the company for misleading consumers about its unlimited data plans. Former AT&T customers may be eligible to claim a refund from the $7 million remaining in a fund created to settle allegations that the wireless provider charged for “unlimited” data plans while reducing their data speeds, a practice known as throttling. The FTC in 2019 required AT&T to provide $60 million for refunds for failing to disclose to millions of smartpho

Broadband companies have long practiced net neutrality and do not block, throttle, or unfairly prioritize content. We support legislation that codifies into law open internet protections across consumers’ online experience. Only modern net neutrality rules can deliver the full protections all consumers deserve. This requires modern rules that apply not only to broadband, but also to online commerce, search, social media and other areas where significant real-world neutrality concerns have emerged. Such key points include the following:

In this paper, we construct a network cost model to understand the rationality of common requirements on the number and location of interconnection points. We also wish to understand if it is rational to apply these requirements to interconnection between an internet service provider (ISP) and a content delivery network (CDN). We construct a model of ISP traffic-sensitive network costs. We consider an ISP that offers service across the US. We parameterize the model using statistics about the population and locations of people in the contiguous US.

Color Of Change, the nation’s largest online racial justice organization, launched the “Black Tech Agenda." The agenda sets an affirmative vision for how to create tech policy that centers on racial justice and ensures bias and discrimination are rooted out of the digital lives of Black people and everyone. The agenda has 6 pillars that outline real policy solutions for Congress to advance racial equity in Tech:

The deadlock over the still-unfilled Democrat place on the five-person board of the Federal Communications Commission seems likely to continue until after November’s mid-term elections and on into 2023 – or even longer. The situation is unprecedented and has lasted for so long (over 600 days now and counting) that FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel is, at long last, publicly contemplating using the powers she has to put an end to the impasse via her casting vote.

Senators Edward Markey (D-MA) andRon Wyden (D-OR) along with Representative Doris Matsui (D-CA-06) introduced the Net Neutrality and Broadband Justice Act, legislation that would accurately classify broadband internet access as a telecommunications service under Title II of the Communications Act, giving the Federal Communications Commission the appropriate authority to reinstate net neutrality protections. The COVID-19 pandemic has made clear the present need to promote an accessible and just broadband future, with students having spent upwards of two years studying online, entrep

The cost for broadband service in the United States is high, and getting higher. In most metropolitan areas of the United States, residents are lucky to have two competing providers from which to choose. A third player in large metro markets is rare, but it's been seen before. The US bishops have argued for greater internet access for all. The US Conference of Catholic Bishops, during the coronavirus pandemic, was a member of an informal coalition that sought to expand access to the internet in unserved and underserved areas.

It’s been 18 months since President Joe Biden was inaugurated. Yet restoring crucial net neutrality rules that are the foundation for an open internet continues to languish in Washington (DC). The problem stems from Democratic lawmakers’ inability to confirm Biden’s nominee, Gigi Sohn [Senior Fellow and Public Advocate at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society], to the Federal Communications Commission. She is needed to break the 2-2 deadlock on the FCC that continues to block action on net neutrality and broadband privacy regulations.

Net neutrality and the rest of President Joe Biden's broadband agenda hang in the balance as the president's nominee for the deadlock-breaking fifth commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission awaits a vote in the US Senate. But the process has stalled for nine months and time is running out. Gigi Sohn, a longtime public-interest advocate and former FCC adviser, was nominated in October 2021 to be the third Democrat at the agency.