Agenda

At a meeting of the Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee, David Redl, head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration said that the Administration was working on "a spectrum strategy" that should be unveiled "soon," but provided no more details. But that was enough to fire up wireless carriers looking for all the spectrum strategies, and new spectrum, they can get.

A California bill that would impose the nation's strictest net neutrality law has been approved by another state Senate committee, bringing it closer to passage. The California Senate Judiciary committee approved the bill April 24 in a 5-2 vote, with Democrats supporting the net neutrality rules and Republicans opposing them. The bill was also approved recently by the California Senate Energy, Utilities, and Communications Committee despite protests from AT&T and cable lobbyists.

The Federal Communications Commission voted to repeal its net neutrality rules in December 2017. “The backlash to the repeal was overwhelming from internet users across the political spectrum. It led to a situation where we’re actually on the offense and we have this incredible tool, a powerful tool, somewhat of a blunt instrument, that Congress can use to block the FCC’s incredibly unpopular decision and keep these rules in place,” said Evan Greer, deputy director of internet advocacy group Fight for the Future.

[Op-ed] There is considerable confusion about what’s really at stake in the congressional debates over net neutrality and online privacy regulation.

Facebook, despite years of outreach to conservatives, remains a punching bag for the right. Facebook’s lukewarm relationship with the right has complicated its search for DC allies to help fend off new privacy regulations. On April 24, the company announced it had replaced the head of its Washington office with Kevin Martin, former Republican Federal Communications Commission chairman. Facebook is bracing for another beating — this time, from some conservatives at a hearing featuring pro-Trump video stars Diamond and Silk, who say Facebook discriminated against their content.

Network neutrality is dead. The rules governing today’s internet, known as the 2015 Open Internet Order, will be lifted any day now. It will mark the first time the US has gone without some form of net neutrality since the 1990s. What happens to net neutrality now? Despite the Federal Communications Commission giving internet providers free reign, immediate changes aren’t likely.

The long, long trail winding from the Federal Communications Commission's Dec. 14, 2017, decision to eliminate network neutrality rules and the actual rollback of those rules continues to wind through Washington, with April 27 the next red-letter day. While some were reporting that April 23 was the effective date of the Restoring Internet Freedom order, that was not the case, or at least not the case with the overwhelming majority of the order, which still awaits the turn of another government wheel or two.

Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), the chief sponsor of a measure to overturn the Federal Communications Commission’s repeal of the net neutrality rules via the Congressional Review Act (CRA), says he envisions it hitting the floor in May 2018. “We’re going to file it right after the break and then we expect sometime in the middle of May to have it on the Senate floor,” said Sen Markey. He didn’t say whether he had secured the elusive 51st vote to pass the CRA resolution in the upper chamber on a simple majority.