netneutrality

FCC’s weed whacker work fails another court test

24 September 2019 by Steve Blum
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The Federal Communications Commission’s republican majority is now 0 for 2 in federal appeals court challenges to its weed whacker campaign to prune back telecommunications and media regulations. In an opinion released yesterday, the third circuit federal appeals court, based in Philadelphia, voted 2 to 1 to overturn an FCC ruling that loosened restrictions on media ownership, because republican commissioners blew off concerns about the effect it would have on women and minorities. In August, Washington, D.C.-based… More

Five years and two FCCs later, FTC settles data throttling case against AT&T

13 September 2019 by Steve Blum
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The slow motion network neutrality enforcement ping pong match between the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission resulted in a data throttling settlement with AT&T, according to a story by Bevin Fletcher in FierceWireless. The details haven’t been released yet, but if approved by FTC commissioners it would end a dispute over how AT&T manages – throttles – the bandwidth consumed by millions of customers with grandfathered unlimited data plans.

AT&T’s mobile data throttling isn’t limited to legacy all-you-can-eat customers, at least according to research published last year, but the FTC’s enforcement action is limited to legacy data plans that are no longer offered.… More

AT&T’s executive shuffle puts WarnerMedia chief in charge of broadband service

4 September 2019 by Steve Blum
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AT&T made two key executive promotions yesterday, naming erstwhile technology chief Jeff McElfresh to head up its broadband and telephone (landline and mobile) businesses, as well as DirecTv, and promoting WarnerMedia head John Stankey to president and chief operating officer, making him the clear second in command to chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson.

Stankey’s new job, according to an AT&T press release is “bringing together the distinct and complimentary capabilities of AT&T Communications, WarnerMedia and [advertising subsidiary] Xandr to deliver…the benefits of a modern media company”.… More

Maine puts buy net neutral requirement on state, but not local agencies

2 July 2019 by Steve Blum
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Network neutrality is on the books in Maine. Governor Janet Mills signed legislative document 1364 into law last week. When it goes into effect later this year, the new law will require Internet service providers to sign net neutrality agreements when they do business with state agencies. They’ll have to pledge not to block or throttle Internet traffic on the basis of content, or engage in paid prioritisation – in other words, create fast lanes for their own content or for other customers…

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“Epic livestream” to reinstate net neutrality marks anniversary of its demise

11 June 2019 by Steve Blum
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Open internet dont tread on me 2

It’s been a year since the Federal Communications Commission’s decision to scrap network neutrality rules took effect. So far, there’s no indication that wireline broadband providers have taken advantage of their new freedom to control the Internet, although mobile carriers apparently haven’t been as restrained.

To mark the day, an open Internet advocacy group, Fight for the Future, is doing a nine hour “epic livestream” to encourage the U.S. senate to pass a stalled net neutrality bill, and to generally make the case for freedom of access to the Internet.… More

U.S. house passes net neutrality bill but leaves the devil in the details and its fate to the senate

11 April 2019 by Steve Blum
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El diablo

A network neutrality bill cleared the democrat-controlled U.S. house of representatives yesterday and is on its way to the U.S. senate, where republican leader Mitch McConnell has been widely quoted as saying it’s “dead on arrival”. The vote in the house was “mostly along party lines”, with only republican – Bill Posey (R – Florida) – joining democrats, according to The Hill.

The text of the bill hasn’t been posted yet. The first draft simply reinstated the Obama-era net neutrality rules and blocked the Federal Communications Commission from making any changes.… More

Net neutrality bill with financial consequences passes Colorado legislature

10 April 2019 by Steve Blum
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Colorado is about to have a network neutrality law that has teeth and a chance of surviving federal court challenges. Senate bill 78, which was just passed by the Colorado legislature, says that Internet service providers that don’t abide by net neutrality principles can’t get state broadband deployment subsidies, and might even have to return money previously awarded if they’re caught violating those rules in the future.

It’s a partisan issue. All republicans in both the Colorado house and senate voted against it; all democrats voted for it.… More

Net neutrality bill moves ahead in U.S. house

26 March 2019 by Steve Blum
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Net neutrality demonstration dc 300

A key sub-committee in the U.S. house of representatives today approved a bill that would restore the 2015 network neutrality rules adopted by what was then a democrat-controlled Federal Communications Commission. It was a party line vote – dems yes, republicans no. The approved text hasn’t been posted yet, but there’s no indication of substantive changes from the version that was introduced earlier this month. The next stop is the house’s full energy and commerce committee.

Net neutrality back in play in U.S. congress as democrats offer new bill

7 March 2019 by Steve Blum
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Congressional democrats are taking another run at overturning the Federal Communication Commission’s 2017 decision to scrap network neutrality rules. Yesterday, amid much fanfare, a draft of a bill was released that would nullify the 2017 decision by the FCC’s republican majority and reinstate the 2015 decision by the then democratic majority to regulate broadband as a common carrier service. Along with that decision came bright line rules: no blocking, throttling or paid prioritisation of subscriber traffic by Internet service providers.… More

Federal appellate judges skeptical of FCC’s net neutrality reasoning

4 February 2019 by Steve Blum
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Network neutrality advocates faced off against the Federal Communications Commission and its telecoms industry partners in a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. on Friday. For more than four hours, a panel of three federal judges grilled both sides as they considered whether the FCC acted “arbitrarily and capriciously” when it rolled back net neutrality rules in 2017.

The central question is whether broadband service is a simple telecommunications service – like phone service – or a value-added information service.… More