Internet/Broadband

[Commentary] What makes for a persuasive comment that can help build a record to preserve network neutrality rules? Here are four suggestions:
1. Write about yourself and how the net neutrality rules have affected you
2. Write about what you understand you are buying when you purchase broadband Internet access
3. Write about the choices you have (or don’t) for broadband Internet access
4. Write about what role you think the Federal Communications Commission should have in overseeing the market for broadband Internet access

Don’t worry if you’ve already filed a comment that doesn’t address these issues – you can file new comments addressing these and/or other issues. Over the course of a proceeding like this, companies and organizations on both sides of the debate will file many comments, including after they visit FCC Commissioners and staff to make their cases. So don’t hesitate - we need to build the strongest possible record if the net neutrality rules, and an open Internet, are to be preserved.

[Gigi Sohn is a Fellow with Georgetown Law’s Institute for Technology Law & Policy, the Open Society Foundations and Mozilla. She served as Counselor to former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler from November 2013-December 2016.]

Netflix is reentering the fray over network neutrality, saying it will participate in an online protest in July designed to draw attention to a high-stakes fight over the future of the Internet. The streaming video company said that it will “never outgrow” its advocacy for net neutrality, the idea that Internet service providers should not arbitrarily manipulate online content as it travels to consumers' screens.

On July 12, Netflix will join Amazon, Reddit, Mozilla and a host of others in modifying its website. The user-facing changes are expected to highlight the benefits of regulations approved by the Federal Communications Commission in 2015.

Rep Anna Eshoo (D-CA) will get together with opponents of the proposal to reverse the Title II classification of internet access. According to an e-mail notification on the June 19 event, it will be held at the headquarters of Mozilla (Firefox), which is participating in a July 12 protest and has been encouraging web surfers to oppose FCC chairman Ajit Pai's proposal to reclassify ISPs as information services and rethink the rules against blocking, throttling and paid prioritization. The event is billed as one with stakeholders, but it also says that it is a "roundtable to discuss the impacts of net neutrality and the consequence of eviscerating the policy."

In many rural communities, where available broadband speed and capacity barely surpass old-fashioned dial-up connections, residents sacrifice not only their online pastimes but also chances at a better living. In a generation, the travails of small-town America have overtaken the ills of the city, and this technology disconnect is both a cause and a symptom. Counties without modern internet connections can’t attract new firms, and their isolation discourages the enterprises they have: ranchers who want to buy and sell cattle in online auctions or farmers who could use the internet to monitor crops. Reliance on broadband includes any business that uses high-speed data transmission, spanning banks to insurance firms to factories.

Rural counties with more households connected to broadband had higher incomes and lower unemployment than those with fewer, according to a 2015 study by university researchers in Oklahoma, Mississippi and Texas who compared rural counties before and after getting high-speed internet service. “Having access to broadband is simply keeping up,” said Sharon Strover, a University of Texas professor who studies rural communication. “Not having it means sinking.”

Hispanics are less likely than other demographic groups to access the internet, while whites continue to be more connected than anyone else, according to new data from internet research company eMarketer. In 2017, less than 80 percent of Hispanics in the US will access the internet at least once a month from any device compared with 85 percent of whites, thanks to socio-economic factors, as well as education. In general, the less educated and economically advantaged a person is, the less likely they are to use the internet, according to eMarketer. The disparity has lessened over time but is still prominent as the internet becomes increasingly integral to daily life.

Mounting security concerns surrounding the proliferation of wireless devices is renewing a long-running internet privacy debate. Traditional partisan rifts over regulation of private companies exploded at a hearing of the House Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology.

Democrats were still steaming about repeal in late March of Federal Communications Commission’s broadband privacy rules, passed by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump, under the guise of the Congressional Review Act (CRA), aimed at eliminating regulations considered burdensome by Republicans. The FCC’s privacy rule did not outline specific security measures for ISPs but recommended they follow a cybersecurity framework set by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and gave the FCC oversight over complaints of security breaches. “When Congress repealed privacy rules in the CRA, they also removed security measures,” said Rep. Mike Doyle (D-PA), the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee. The since-repealed FCC privacy rules included a provision requiring that internet service providers take “reasonable” measures to protect user data, such as Social Security numbers and health information.

Just as we need the First Amendment to protect basic speech, we need those very same ideals, to ensure free speech and free flow of content on the internet. That First Amendment for the internet, is network neutrality, because people who control the wires and the airwaves over which we communicate, have a unique ability to shape what we see, say, and hear.

So why I am here tonight? I can sum it up in two ways. First, I want to hear your stories, take them back to the Federal Communications Commission, and make sure they are part of the conversation. For there are those who are attempting to minimize the value of the over four million comments we have received on line and by post, so give me your permission to mention your names and let them see your faces tonight. And I am here tonight, to tell you that these rules do not have a snowball’s chance in that perpetual furnace, if you fail to make your voices heard. So my ask is that you not only submit comments to the FCC, but call your Member of Congress, reach out to your US Senators, and let them know why an open internet is so important to you. Then you’ve got to talk about it with others, share why this thing we call net neutrality is important and valuable to them as well as every person in America. The only chance of keeping vital protections in place and not being trampled is to speak up and speak out. Silence and inaction, when it comes past movements and in this proceeding, are not your allies.

Approximately 85% of residents of Tribal lands in rural areas lack access to high-speed fixed broadband. Put more plainly, if you are part of that 85%, it’s almost like living in a different era—one in which it’s much harder to improve your life and the lives of your families. Discussions in Washington about 5G wireless networks, superfast Wi-Fi, and telemedicine don’t mean much if you don’t have access to them.

What can the Federal Communications Commission do to bring the benefits of digital communications to Indian Country? This past April, the FCC unanimously proposed several measures aimed at encouraging greater Internet access. These proposals build upon previous FCC decisions to make federal funding available for building new broadband networks. I’ve made clear that constructing these networks in rural areas, including unserved and underserved Tribal lands, is a top priority of mine.

A change in leadership at the Federal Communications Commission has led to rising uncertainty about the future of efforts to boost broadband access, preserve an open internet, and protect online privacy—all issues affecting the K-12 sector. Atop education leaders' list of concerns is the E-rate, a $3.9 billion federal program that helps schools and libraries pay for telecommunications services. A wide cross-section of experts credits the FCC's 2014 overhaul of the program for helping.

The US Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has awarded $38.5 million to 33 research and development (R&D) projects aimed at advancing broadband communications technologies for first responders. The multiyear grants are intended to help modernize public safety communications and operations by supporting the migration of data, video and voice communications from mobile radio to a nationwide public safety broadband network, as well as accelerating critical technologies related to indoor location tracking and public safety analytics.