Brian Fung

Here’s what to expect as the fight over network neutrality enters its next act.

In what regulators are calling the largest refund in US history by an Internet provider to consumers, Charter Communications will pay more than $62.5 million -- and free subscriptions to HBO or Showtime -- to New York customers who allegedly didn’t receive the Internet speeds they were promised, according to New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood.

The state of California has struck a temporary agreement with the Justice Department not to move forward with a federal lawsuit challenging the state’s new net neutrality law, delaying a pivotal legal battle over the future of the Internet. The Justice Department will postpone its litigation against California until a separate case directly involving the Federal Communications Commission runs its course, according to court filings. The agreement must be approved by a judge.

President Donald Trump accused Twitter of deleting large swaths of his followers from the social media platform, deriding the company for slow growth and accusing it of ideological bias despite providing little evidence for his claims. "Twitter has removed many people from my account and, more importantly, they have seemingly done something that makes it much harder to join - they have stifled growth to a point where it is obvious to all. A few weeks ago it was a Rocket Ship, now it is a Blimp! Total Bias?" the President tweeted. Twitter did not directly rebut President Trump’s claim.

More than a dozen US cities are challenging federal regulators in court over a recent decision that could give telecommunication companies millions in financial and other breaks as they race to build a next-generation wireless network powered by 5G mobile data. On Oct 24, officials from Los Angeles (CA), Portland (OR), and Bellevue (WA), among others, asked the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to review the rule change by the Federal Communications Commission, which restricts cities' ability to charge for access to public utility poles.

The Justice Department’s top antitrust enforcer, Makan Delrahim, is receptive to complaints that tech companies such as Google and Facebook may be hindering competition with their dominance but believes regulators lack the economic evidence that would be needed to prove such a case in court. Delrahim that there are “very valid concerns at some level” about whether companies in Silicon Valley are getting too big, or “stifling innovation or consumer choice.” In principle, those complaints could ultimately lead to an antitrust suit, Delrahim said.

Uber has agreed to pay $148 million to settle allegations from 50 states and the District of Columbia that the ride-hailing company violated data breach laws when it waited a year to disclose a hack affecting tens of millions of its riders and drivers. The settlement is among the biggest in Uber’s history and comes as policymakers on Sept 26 were debating whether to write a national consumer privacy law in front of witnesses including Google and Twitter. It marks the first time Uber has settled a matter with the top law enforcement officials from all 50 states and the District.

Officials from 14 states' top legal offices and the Justice Department have begun a coordinated conversation about ways to keep tabs — and potentially rein in — the fast-growing tech giants. The gathering had been designed to focus on social media platforms and the ways in which they moderate content online, following complaints from President Donald Trump and other top Republican lawmakers that Silicon Valley companies deliberately seek to silence conservative users and views online.

Mobile carriers such as AT&T and Verizon are in a race to build brand-new data networks that can deliver ultrafast downloads and support a fresh generation of smart, Internet-connected devices. But a battle is brewing over how much the companies should pay for access to public utility poles and other rights of way, as federal regulators get ready to vote on the issue on Sept 26. The proposal by the Federal Communications Commission would establish new limits on the use fees that cities and towns can charge wireless carriers as the companies set up their new 5G data networks.

In a post on reddit, a person identifying themselves as a Verizon customer in North Carolina complained about a lack of mobile data service, writing,

We traveled into a bigger town and called Verizon to check and see if there was a data outage and when we could expect it to be restored. Only, I was told that my unlimited plan was deprioritized for being to low tier of a plan. But if I upgraded to a higher plan my service would be restored.

Contacted by the Washington Post, Verizon spokesperson Richard Young said,