Regulatory classification

Congress created the Federal Communications Commission in order to ensure we would have working communications infrastructure for, among other things, handling public safety. So you would think that when Verizon throttled the Santa Clara (CA) Fire Department’s mobile broadband connection for coordinating response to the Mendocino Complex Fire — the largest wildfire in California history — that the FCC would naturally be all over it.

A campaign to stop network neutrality rules in California is targeting senior citizens with robocalls claiming that the rules will raise cell phone bills by $30 a month and slow down their data. The robocalls cite no evidence supporting the claim that net neutrality rules will raise cell phone bills and slow down Internet service. The bill in question would impose net neutrality rules in California that are nearly identical to the ones the Federal Communications Commission had on the books between 2015 and 2018.

A coalition of trade groups representing companies including Alphabet, Facebook, and Amazon, urged a US appeals court to reinstate landmark “network neutrality” rules adopted in 2015 to guarantee an open internet. In a legal filing, the Internet Association, Entertainment Software Association, Computer & Communications Industry Association, and Writers Guild of America West urged the reversal of the Federal Communications Commission's decision under Chairman Ajit Pai to overturn the rules in December.

Network neutrality activists have gotten together to fight the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, saying he would put the wishes of big cable and big telecom over the interests of the public. Free Press, Public Knowledge, Fight for the Future, Demand Progress and 20 others have sent a letter to the Senate in opposition. His Senate nomination hearings--in the Judiciary Committee--are scheduled to begin Sept 4, although Democrats are trying to delay them, partly in hopes of regaining the Senate and blocking the nomination themselves. 

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai and his staff are fond of taking to Twitter to assert that, in the just over two months since the repeal of the FCC’s 2015 network neutrality rules took effect, the “Internet remains free and open” — and that opponents’ concerns that unconstrained broadband providers will act in a way that harms consumers and competition are overblown.

In recent years, the Federal Communications Commission has become a microcosm of the political battles in Congress. The Democratic-controlled Wheeler Commission entitled its Net Neutrality Order “Protecting and Promoting the Open Internet.” Not to be outdone, the Republican-controlled Pai Commission that overturned that Order entitled its own “Restoring `Internet Freedom.” And like Congressional pronouncements, Commissioners look to grab headlines with dramatic statements of impending doom if their policies are not enacted.

Verizon slowing California firefighters’ data speeds during a wildfire crisis, but was quick to say, “This situation has nothing to do with net neutrality or the current proceeding in court.” Verizon was throttling “unlimited” customers in less extreme circumstances who hit certain data thresholds well before the Federal Communications Commission repealed net neutrality rules in 2017. But under the rules adopted in 2015, customers had a path to complain to the FCC when they believed throttling was unfair.

During a visit to Utah, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai called for Congress, not his agency, to write “network neutrality” rules regulating businesses that connect consumers to the internet. “We need Congress to set the rules of the digital road,” Chairman Pai said, standing with Rep. Mia Love (R-UT) who made a similar call. Their public comments came after the pair met privately with Utah rural internet providers as part of an FCC outreach on how to extend and improve their services.

On Aug 21, the County of Santa Clara (CA), joined by 22 States and the California Public Utilities Commission, filed its brief supporting network neutrality in the ongoing litigation to protect the open internet. The brief attached testimony and an email thread from the County Fire Chief, Anthony Bowden, describing how—during the worst wildfire in California history—Verizon throttled the Internet connection of a critical emergency response vehicle .  “This throttling has had a significant impact on our ability to provide emergency services.

After a long pre-season in which little else happened other than setting a schedule and format for briefing, August 20, 2018 was Opening Day for the litigation appealing the Federal Communications Commission’s December 2017 network neutrality decision. Two groups of challengers (technically referred to as “petitioners”) filed their briefs Monday evening in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.