John Eggerton

Internet service providers were renewing their pledges not to block or throttle or otherwise discriminate against legal online content. Under Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai's plan, if ISPs did block or throttle or prioritize, they would have to disclose that to the FCC per transparency rules regarding network management, and Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission could respond accordingly.

INCOMPAS, whose members include competitive carriers and edge providers, has told the Federal Communications Commission that network neutrality rules apply to interconnections among networks as well as between ISPs and broadband subscribers. "If the Commission were to relinquish its oversight of interconnection and internet traffic exchange as contemplated in the NPRM, we expect that large BIAS providers will revert to exercising their incentive to engage in congestion practices at interconnection to force edge and transit providers to pay them which will harm the investment in Internet con

As Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai prepares to circulate an item reversing the Title II common carrier classification of Internet service providers, expected late next week, a group of rural members of USTelecom has asked the FCC to make sure it prevents states and localities from trying to undo that good work via their own laws and regulations.

Rep Anna Eshoo (D-CA) has called on Federal Communications CommissionChairman Ajit Pai to investigate Russian state-sponsored media outlets RT and Sputnik. She points out that the US intelligence community has concluded both meddled in the elections and also that this is her third letter she has sent to the chairman seeking an investigation. She says Pai's responses to the previous two were to dismiss her concerns while failing to fully address them.

Sinclair/Tribune deal friends and foes clashed on Capitol Hill Nov 15 at a debate and panel session hosted by the Georgetown Law’s Institute for Technology Law & Policy. The forum did not break a lot of new ground, but there was some scorched earth, particularly when the issue of shared services and joint sales agreements came up.

As AT&T prepares to fight for its merger with Time Warner if necessary, it has the Communications Workers of America solidly in its corner, and against any CNN-prompted spin-off demands by the Justice Department. The union said Nov 14 that is it fully supportive of the deal. “This merger is about maintaining and creating good U.S. jobs and developing new and innovative ways to deliver technology and content,” said CWA President Chris Shelton.

The Federal Communications Commission has approved John Malone’s (Liberty Interactive)  $1.1 billion deal to buy Alaskan cable and phone company General Communication Inc. (GCI). The Justice Department signaled last July it had no antitrust issues with the deal. GCI has about 108,000 cable sub in Alaska and is the state’s largest telephone and wireless company.  The FCC imposed no conditions in granting the application, saying it posed no potential harms to the public interest. In the same order it denied the petitions to deny or condition the deal.

Barry Diller, chairman of edge provider IAC (ask.com, The Daily Beast, and Angie's List, among many others) told CNBC he doesn't care what the Federal Communications Commission does or doesn't do about network neutrality because he doesn't think that neutrality can now be violated. Tasked to weigh in on the issue given the Trump Administration pledge to roll back Title II -- FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is expected to proposed that rollback soon. "I think it is over," he said. "I don't care what they do about net neutrality. It is [the] practice of the world," he said.

A large group of associations representing smaller entities has called on the bipartisan leadership of the HouseCommerce Committee to support a bipartisan bill providing them some regulatory relief at the Federal Communications Commission. They wrote the chair and ranking member of the committee to register their support for the Small Entity Regulatory Relief Opportunity (SERRO) Act (HR 3787), which is being considered as part of legislation to reauthorize the FCC now being considered by the full committee.

The National Grange, which advocates for rural and agricultural interests, has joined with Consumer Action and the former chair of the Oglala Sioux Tribe Utility commission to oppose Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai's proposal to revamp the FCC's Lifeline low income advanced communications subsidy program, called Lifeline. They used words highly charged words like "knock out," "cripple," "kill" and "destroy" to characterize the proposal. The Grange et al.