Regulatory classification

Democratic senators are urging Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) to hold a vote on a resolution that would restore the Federal Communications Commission's network neutrality rules.  All 49 Democratic senators signed a letter to Speaker Ryan asking him to schedule a vote for the resolution, which passed the Senate in May.

Network neutrality skeptics sought to sound the alarm during a TechFreedom Hill briefing on the Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution to undo the Federal Communications Commission’s repeal of Obama-era open internet rules. The measure passed the Senate on a 52-47 vote, but still needs 218 backers to force a vote in the House.

If the California network neutrality bill passes through Assembly, the state’s size and influence on the market might make it the new broadband standard nationwide. The bill, SB 822, is one of the most comprehensive measures any state has put forward in the six months following the FCC’s vote to roll back the original Obama-era regulations.

[Commentary] At the moment, 36 states and Washington (DC) have introduced efforts to keep network neutrality. These efforts range from introducing legislation to filing lawsuits. At the moment, it’s too early to tell if these suits will be successful and if states will be allowed to implement their own rules for broadband. Now, let’s say these suits were to fail, and the repeal of net neutrality continued to move forward as planned. What impact would this have on consumers? 

[Commentary] In a report on the topic, the analysts at New Street Research laid out a pretty compelling argument for how ISPs will be able to cash in on real-time sports betting by providing high-speed links to gamblers looking for an edge. “Placing a bet does not require a lot of bandwidth.

AT&T has given up its years-long quest to cripple the Federal Trade Commission's authority to regulate broadband providers. Just weeks ago, AT&T said it intended to appeal its loss in the case to the US Supreme Court before a deadline of May 29. But May 31, AT&T informed court officials that it has decided not to file a petition to the Supreme Court and did not ask for a deadline extension.

The California State Senate approved a network neutrality bill that has been called the “gold standard” of such bills in the nation, as states grapple with a controversial repeal of Obama-era federal rules meant to ensure an open internet.

You might not be hearing much from big tech on net neutrality lately. But the likes of Google and Facebook are still invested in the fight behind the scenes. The Internet Association joined a legal battle to overturn the Federal Communications Commission's decision to revoke the Obama-era rules, as did the industry group Incompas, which includes smaller telecommunications companies as well as tech companies including Facebook, Netflix, Microsoft, and Twitter.

Appearing on C-SPAN's The Communicators, Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr signaled he thought reports of the impending death of the internet were highly overrated. He said that on June 11, when the FCC's network neutrality regulation rollback takes effect, consumers "are not going to see the end of the internet" and "in fact, are going back to the same regime we had in 2015 and for 20 years before that."

Democratic voters are receptive to the party’s efforts to use the network neutrality debate as a way to energize the base heading into the November midterms, according to Morning Consult/Politico polling. The most recent survey — conducted May 17-19 among 1,990 registered voters nationwide — found that 59 percent of Democratic respondents said a candidate’s support for the net neutrality rules adopted by the Federal Communications Commission in 2015 was somewhat or very important when deciding whom to vote for in the midterms, compared to 51 percent of respondents overall.