Network Neutrality

As attendees of the telecom industry's premier social gathering were escaping the 44-degree chill and entering the Washington Hilton, several dozen net-neutrality protesters chanted outside. Across the street, on an exterior wall of the Courtyard Marriott, the activists projected in giant lettering, "No Slow Lanes. Open & Equal Internet For All."

Days before the Federal Communications Commission will vote on its proposed rollback of Net Neutrality rules that protect the open internet, Representative Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY) introduced the Save Net Neutrality Act (H.R. 4585) to stop the FCC’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that would result in a final rule eliminating the existing Net Neutrality policy. The FCC offered an NPRM on May 18, 2017 which would rollback Net Neutrality rules established by the Commission in 2015.

A group of 50 US mayors sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai in a collective effort to ask that he keeps the current rules, which are based on Title II of the Communications Act, in place.

[Commentary]  The idea of network neutrality may be intuitively simple, but the regulations that codify it are complex. One point of comparison is the position countries take on “zero rating,” a phrase used to describe telecom service plans that offer discounted or free access to a select group of apps or services. In fact, this image from the website of a Portuguese telecom provider MEO, that uses zero rating, recently went viral because it represents the dystopia of what a fragmented internet might look like. 

[Commentary] The Trump Federal Communications Commission has determined, amazingly but not surprisingly, to rush through its transfer of authority over internet service providers to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)—even before knowing if that agency possesses the authority to handle such matters.

[Commentary] On Thursday, December 14, the Federal Communications Commission will vote on a proposal to abolish net neutrality. People who care about rural America’s access to services and information should be concerned. Without net neutrality rules, consumers and the federal government have no way to prevent internet service providers from doing bad things to consumers until after the fact. And because there are no rules, how do you get providers to stop doing bad things to consumers and businesses?

Federal Communications Commission member Mignon Clyburn took to the streets, literally, speaking to protestors outside the Federal Communications Bar Association's chairman's dinner, where FCC Chairman Ajit Pai was the featured jokester. She was also highlighting a letter to the FCC from various elected officials (mostly mayors), including mayors of New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. They called on the FCC to preserve its 2015 rules.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai says the agency's net-neutrality rules are discouraging investment, leaving consumers with fewer, and less robust, choices for internet service, and potentially widening the digital divide. Broadband providers' own financial reports tell a different story. The nation's largest internet provider actually increased its spending during 2015 and 2016, as did several other companies. Others cut spending, but said the drops stemmed from completion of longer-term plans.

Entrepreneurs are rightly concerned that large companies will spend heavily to dominate fast-lane access, making it harder for some startups, such as bandwidth-hungry mobile video companies, to challenge them. “Milliseconds of difference can leave you at a disadvantage when potential customers are evaluating your product,” explains Tom Lee, the head of policy at Mapbox, a location data platform for mobile and Web applications. Even the very biggest startups could suffer.

More than 30 press freedom, civil liberties and open government groups submitted a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai urging him to cancel the scheduled Dec. 14 vote to undermine the open-internet protections put in place in 2015. “You must not abandon Net Neutrality,” the letter to Chairman Pai reads. “The open internet is today our main conduit for expression and information. It is our library, our printing press, our delivery truck and our town square.