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May 2017

Make No Mistake: Chairman Pai Wants to Roll Back the Net Neutrality Rules. Here's What You Need to Know.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai officially released the agency’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) recently to begin a process intended to undo the 2015 Open Internet Order and roll back vital Network Neutrality protections. The NPRM summarizes Chairman Pai’s thinking and sets up questions the FCC intends to explore during the rulemaking process. Unfortunately, it’s as bad as we expected.

Not only does the NPRM propose to eliminate the FCC’s only viable way to enforce Net Neutrality under Title II of the Communications Act, it specifically suggests elimination of bright-line Net Neutrality rules that prevent ISPs from engaging in paid prioritization, blocking and throttling content and websites. Yet Chairman Pai and his supporters in the cable industry are pretending that they’re not gunning for the Net Neutrality rules themselves. This claim is front and center on the homepage of cable industry front group Broadband for America: “The FCC is not trying to repeal Net Neutrality; it is working on separate regulations called Title II or ‘utility’ regulation.” This doublespeak obscures two central pillars of Pai’s approach (scattering in a few extra falsehoods along the way, like the inaccurate reference to so-called utility rules, and the repetition of Pai’s constant lies about alleged harms from Title II). Pai wants to pretend that he’s preserving the open internet, but he’s made up his mind to dismantle the rules that protect it and the foundation on which those rules stand.

ISPs Have Their Own Definition of Net Neutrality

Internet service providers have been among the fiercest critics of the Federal Communications Commission’s two-year-old network neutrality rules aimed at preventing companies like Verizon and Comcast from dictating how fast — or slow — online content can be accessed. That doesn’t mean ISPs oppose network neutrality — they just have a different definition for it, Comcast Senior Executive Vice President David Cohen said during a panel discussion in Washington.

Cohen endorsed the recent FCC move that begins reversing Obama-era rules that classified the internet as a “utility” under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934. “Getting rid of Title II does not mean getting rid of net neutrality,” Cohen said at Free State Foundation’s telecommunications policy conference. “You can support net neutrality rules, but you don’t have to do that under all of the baggage that comes with Title II.”

In 2017, how much low-, mid- and high-band spectrum do Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint and Dish own, and where?

Licensed spectrum remains perhaps the most important building block in the wireless industry. As a result, nationwide carriers like Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint are eager to both obtain suitable spectrum holdings across the country, and to use those spectrum licenses in the most effective way possible. But where exactly do these nationwide carriers own spectrum? And what type of spectrum do they own? And how much?

To answer these questions, FierceWireless has once again partnered with Allnet Insights & Analytics, a wireless spectrum research and analysis firm, to map out exactly how much spectrum each of the four Tier 1 nationwide US wireless carriers currently owns. Also included in this list is Dish Network, which for the past several years has been quietly accumulating a war chest of spectrum that today almost rivals that of T-Mobile. These maps and charts include all pending spectrum transactions filed before April 30, 2017 (the FCC reviews all license spectrum transactions). Importantly, these maps and charts also include the results of the FCC’s recently completed incentive auction of TV broadcasters’ unwanted 600 MHz licenses. For complete details on the results of that auction, click here. Allnet Insights' data also includes the spectrum AT&T is getting access to through its partnership with FirstNet.

Phoenix Center
June 14, 2017
6 pm - 8:30 pm
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/phoenix-center-2017-rooftop-policy-roundtab...

6:00 – 7:00: Drinks and Light Fare

7:00 – 7:15: Welcome and Brief Overview of Recent Research

7:15 – 7:45: Keynote Discussion with FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly

7:45 – 8:30: Panel Discussion:

  • Jonathan Spalter – President & CEO, USTelecom;
  • Bryan Tramont – Managing Partner, Wilkinson, Barker Knauer, LLP;
  • Dr. Tim Brennan – Professor of Economics, UMBC and former Chief Economist, FCC; and
  • Robert Quinn – Senior Executive Vice President, External and Legislative Affairs, AT&T


A Discussion with Milton Mueller

New America
Tuesday, June 6, 2017
12:00 PM – 1:30 PM EST
http://newamerica.cvent.com/events/will-the-internet-fragment-a-discussi...

The internet has united the world as never before. But is it in danger of breaking apart? Cybersecurity, geopolitical tensions, and calls for data sovereignty have made many believe that the internet is fragmenting. Join New America's Open Technology Institute and ISOC-DC as they host Professor Milton Mueller and a set of esteemed panelists to discuss threats to the stability of the internet, and provide insights into what should be done to address this concern.

In his new book, Will the Internet Fragment? Professor Mueller argues that the fragmentation diagnosis misses the mark, and the rhetoric of fragmentation camouflages the real issue: the attempt by governments to align information flows with their jurisdictional boundaries. The fragmentation debate is really a power struggle over the future of national sovereignty, pitting global governance and open access against traditional territorial institutions of government. This conflict, the book argues, can only be resolved through radical institutional innovations. In order to save the internet, we need to move away from national sovereignty and towards popular sovereignty in cyberspace.

Moderator

Derrick Cogburn
Professor, American University
@derrickcogburn

Panelists

Milton Mueller
Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology School of Public Policy

Rebecca MacKinnon
Director, Ranking Digital Rights project at New America

Tim Maurer
Co-director of the Cyber Policy Initiative, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Angela McKay
Senior Director of Cybersecurity Policy and Strategy, Microsoft

Lunch will be provided.


Should Two Trump Two Million?

[Commentary] On May 18, I had the privilege of joining a people’s protest outside Federal Communications Commission headquarters in Washington (DC). Inside on that same morning, two intransigent and backward-looking commissioners (they constitute the FCC majority) announced their intention to dismantle the good and court-approved network neutrality rules put in place by the previous FCC. Their intention is to close the open internet. Meanwhile more than 2,000,000 Americans had already contacted the Commission directly, the overwhelming majority seeking to keep the net neutrality rules and guarantee an internet that serves us all rather than kowtow to big cable and bloated telecom. In the May 18 match-up, 2 trumped 2,000,000, and the semi-final proposal was circulated, with final approval likely late this summer or early fall. Unless even more of us get involved.
[Michael Copps served as a commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission from May 2001 to December 2011 and was the FCC's Acting Chairman from January to June 2009.]

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