Wired

Charles "Chip" Pickering, a conservative Republican former member of Congress and CEO of a telecommunications-industry group called Incompas, supports net neutrality. Under Pickering's leadership, Incompas has been a steadfast defender of 2015 rules adopted by the Federal Communications Commission that ban broadband providers like Comcast and Verizon from blocking or discriminating against lawful content. That’s placed it at odds with other industry groups working to undermine efforts to mandate net neutrality.Incompas  itself is something of a paradox.

Prisons are notoriously low-tech places. But urged on by privately owned companies, like JPay, facilities across the country are adding e-messaging, a rudimentary form of email that remains disconnected from the larger web. Nearly half of all state prison systems now have some form of e-messaging: JPay’s services are available to prisoners in 20 states. On the surface, e-messaging seems like an easy and efficient way for families to keep in touch—a quicker 21st-century version of pen-and-paper mail. Companies like JPay cover the price of installing the systems; prisons pay nothing.

Small internet service providers (ISPs) expect a helping hand from the Federal Communications Commission August 2, a move that could spur competition and perhaps lower prices. But the FCC is also considering a more sweeping proposal that would hurt upstarts to the benefit of industry giants like AT&T. Both issues revolve around how much access upstarts should have to facilities and equipment owned by their bigger rivals. The vote is about arcane rules for moving wires on utility poles.

As the tech industry has grown in power and influence, its politics have moved to the left. When people want to understand Silicon Valley’s political leanings, they often look to CA’s 17th Congressional District. Apple and Intel are headquartered there, as is Tesla’s manufacturing plant. In 2016, the voters of the 17th elected Ro Khanna, a former deputy assistant secretary in Obama’s Commerce Department, to represent them. Based on his 2017 legislative record, GovTrack ranked Rep Khanna the 14th-most-liberal representative in the House.

A host of companies believe, rather than fiber optic cables, the better way to connect the estimated half of Earth’s population that’s still offline is to launch “constellations” of smaller satellites into low Earth orbit, around 100 to 1,250 miles above our planet. Facebook is officially one of them.  Emails between the company and the Federal Communications Commission show that Facebook wants to launch Athena, its very own internet satellite, in early 2019.