Critics of Chairman Pai's Sec. 706 Broadband Deployment Review Create #MobileOnly Challenge

The Federal Communications Commission's decision to review what qualifies as high-speed broadband has drawn a crowd of critics armed with smartphones and other devices. Almost a dozen groups including Public Knowledge, New America’s Open Technology Institute, the National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC) have launched the #MobileOnly challenge. Between Jan. 1 and Jan. 31, participants will spend an entire day only accessing the internet via a mobile device. The idea is to demonstrate that mobile has various limitations that make it not a sufficient substitute for wired broadband.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai in August proposed to, potentially, adjust the sights on the agency’s annual assessment of whether advanced telecommunications is being deployed in a reasonable and timely fashion, including counting wireless broadband as competitive with wired. That came in a request for information on the state of competition in the video marketplace for the FCC’s 19th video competition report, as well as for input on its 13th Section 706 report. Internet service providers have long argued, along with Chairman Pai, that the FCC had been putting a thumb on the scale for regulation by concluding that because deployment was not 100%, that deployment was not reasonable and timely.