Editorial

[Commentary] Anyone doubting the power lobbyists still hold in Washington need only look at the ongoing, shameful net neutrality travesty.  It was bad enough that Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai, a former Verizon lawyer, engineered the repeal of President Barack Obama’s landmark rules prohibiting Internet Service Providers from blocking or slowing down the internet or giving preference for certain online content.

[Commentary] Comcast and other Internet service providers “experimenting” with data caps inject JavaScript code into their customers’ data streams in order to display overlays on Web pages that inform them of data cap thresholds. They’ll even display notices that your cable modem may be eligible for replacement. And you can't opt out. Think about it for a second: Your cable provider is monitoring your traffic and injecting its own code wherever it likes. This is not only obtrusive, but can cause significant problems with normal Web application function.

[Commentary] Some of you might recall that in Nov, Verizon announced it would make Sacramento the first city in the country to have 5G – or fifth-generation – residential wireless broadband service. We beat out at least two other cities for it, following a few months of being a test market. Now if all goes well, many more Sacramentans will be able to tap into the ultra-high-speed service with their smartphones, tablets and computers by the second half of 2018. The deal, in part, is the culmination of another one inked in June.

[Commentary] Net neutrality shouldn't be a controversial issue. Pipelines and power grids, telephones and railroads, all must comply with common carrier regulations that prohibit discrimination and special treatment. There's little reason for the internet to be any different. The promise of the internet exists in its open, unrestricted nature. Nevertheless, the Federal Communications Commission is scheduled to vote on rolling back its net neutrality regulations on Thursday, Dec. 14.  The tech trade group Internet Association is pushing for the FCC to delay its vote.

[Commentary] Like all major government efforts to deregulate industries, from telephones to airlines, the Federal Communications Commission’s move to do away with net neutrality is destined to have a major impact. We think consumers will benefit because increased competition is a greater spur to technological innovation than government fiat.

[Commentary] The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission wants to let Comcast, Verizon and other broadband companies turn the internet into a latter-day version of cable TV, in which they decide what customers can watch and how much they pay for that content. That might sound like a far-fetched scenario. But there is reason to fear that some version of that awful vision could become a reality, because most Americans have just one or two choices for broadband access at home.

[Commentary] Moving in for the kill, incumbent carriers have stretched their home team advantage.  With millions in lobbying, campaign contributions and sponsored research, along with a like-minded Federal Communications Commission majority, the unpleasantness of the prior 8 year Obama stretch largely will evaporate very quickly. Money well spent. Rather than frame regulatory debates in terms of midlevel issues of economic theory and political philosophy, think lower tier: cold hard cash money. Follow the money.

[Commentary] The United States is a nation quarreling with itself right now. Most of the country’s population wants to keep the internet an equitable and free place, embracing net neutrality rules as a necessary guardian against corporate overreach. But the current political administration seems hellbent on dismantling net neutrality and handing internet service providers the freedom to mold, shape, manipulate, and price internet access in whatever fashion they like.

[Commentary] President Donald Trump’s chair of the Federal Communications Commission, Ajit Pai, and the Trump-aligned majority on a commission is bent on clearing the way for precisely the sort of media monopoly that FDR and the small-“d” democrats of his time feared. Recently, the FCC voted 3-2 for a radical rewrite of media-ownership rules that will benefit corporate conglomerates, while diminishing the character and quality of the discourse in communities across the United States.

[Commentary]  As the Federal Communications Commission gets ready to abandon a decade of progress on net neutrality, some in Congress are considering how new legislation could fill the gap and protect users from unfair ISP practices. Unfortunately, too many lawmakers seem to be embracing the idea that they should allow ISPs to create Internet “fast lanes” -- also known as “paid prioritization,” one of the harmful practices that violates net neutrality.