FCC Boss Ajit Pai Annoyed As Neutrality Fight Heads to the House This week's 52-47 vote in the Senate to try and restore the FCC's net neutrality rules isn't going over particularly well with ISPs and FCC boss Ajit Pai. USTelecom, a lobbying group primarily funded and directed by AT&T, penned yet another extremely misleading blog post falsely claiming that restoring net neutrality rules (backed by 86% of the public) would somehow "undercut the competitive edge of our digital economy," and "throws into reverse our shared goal of maintaining an open, thriving Internet."

FCC boss Ajit Pai also spent some time whining about efforts to restore rules that see huge, bipartisan public approval. "It’s disappointing that Senate Democrats forced this resolution through by a narrow margin," complained the FCC boss in a statement. "But ultimately, I'm confident that their effort to reinstate heavy-handed government regulation of the Internet will fail." Pai's claims that the rules are "heavy handed" are false. In fact, the FCC's 2015 net neutrality rules are among the more modest rules passed internationally, especially when compared to countries like Canada or India (which have both taken harder stances on things like zero rating). As for "narrow margins," Senator Ed Market was quick to note Pai was appointed by a similarly-narrow margin: »twitter.com/SenMarkey/st ··· lity%2F

“The Internet was free and open before 2015, when the prior FCC buckled to political pressure from the White House and imposed utility-style regulation on the Internet," proclaimed Pai. "And it will continue to be free and open once the Restoring Internet Freedom Order takes effect on June 11." Pai and the telecom lobby's continued claims that net neutrality is "utility-style regulation" is false. In fact, the previous FCC went out of its was to forbear from most of the heavier-handed aspects of utility-style regulation when it passed the rules. Given that ISPs (with Pai's help) are simultaneously trying to gut FCC, FTC and state oversight of monopolies like Comcast, Pai's claims that he's somehow "restoring freedom" by letting monopolies run amok remain comical. Meanwhile, the CRA reversal effort heads to the House. Rep. Mike Doyle has filed a discharge petition, which would force a vote on the House resolution to restore net neutrality rules, but only if the House is able to secure 218 votes. From there, the proposal would need to avoid a veto by President Trump to have the rules restored. That's an arguably uphill battle given how successful ISP lobbyists have been at falsely framing net neutrality (read: keeping the internet open and competitive) as a partisan issue. Still, even if the gambit fails, it will still provide voters with a handy checklist of which politicians actually back consumers, and which are willing to sell out the health of the internet and consumer welfare simply to deliver fatter revenues to AT&T, Comcast and Verizon.







News Jump WISPs Get CBRS Range As Great As Six Miles At 100 Mbps Speeds; Windstream Officially Exits Bankruptcy; + more news Charter Relaunches Free 60-day Internet And Wi-Fi Offer; NCTA: FCC Should Stick With 25/3 Speed Threshold; + more news Comcast Shuts Off Internet for Subs Who Were Sold Service Illegally; AT&T, Verizon Team To Stop T-Mobile 5G; + more news California Defends Its Net Neutrality Law; AT&T's Traffic Up 20% Despite Data Traffic Actually Being Down; + more news Are The Comcast-Charter X1 Talks Dead In The Water?; AT&T May Offer Phone Plans With Ads For Discounts; + more news Europe's Top Court: Net Neutrality Rules Bar Zero Rating; ViacomCBS To Rebrand CBS All Access As Paramount+; + more news Verizon To Buy Reseller TracFone For $7B; 5G Not The Competitive Threat To Cable Many Thought It Would Be; + more news MS.Wants Records From AT&T On $300M Project; Google Fiber Outages In Austin, Houston, Other Texan Cities; + more news States With The Biggest Decreases In Speed; AT&T Hopes You'll Forget Its Fight Against Accurate Maps; + more news AT&T's CEO Has A Familiar $olution To US Broadband Woes; EarthLink Files Suit Against Charter; + more news ---------------------- this week last week most discussed

Most recommended from 58 comments



maartena

Elmo

Premium Member

join:2002-05-10

Orange, CA 107 recommendations maartena Premium Member Internet wasn't "free and open" before 2015. Did anyone forget the dispute between Verizon and Netflix?

Did anyone forget the deal Comcast and Netflix made?

Did anyone forget that there were providers blocking certain types of traffic?

Did anyone forget that some providers blocked VOIP services such as Vonage in order to force their own landline sales?

Did anyone forget that AT&T blocked Skype from iPhones for several years because they wanted customers to buy larger minute plans?

Did anyone forget that AT&T and Verizon both blocked SoftCard (formerly known as Isis, but renamed for obvious reasons) payment systems because they competed with Google Pay and Apple Pay which they supported?

Did anyone forget that several providers (including AT&T, Windstream, and others) hijacked your DNS requests?



And do you realize that ALL of the above can happen again without ANY consequences once the ISP's know Net Neutrality really can't be re-introduced?



The reason Net Neutrality became a thing in 2015 was not because the Internet was "free and open", it was BECAUSE providers were abusing their customers already, and the sudden rise of Netflix became a catalyst for these issues. Net Neutrality is NEEDED to prevent ISP's from doing things such as listed above.



The reason ISP's haven't started to do these things again is because Net Neutrality might return, and it wouldn't be worth the investment. It may not come back with the House vote, and the almost certain veto by Trump.... but states are working on their own legislation, and it may become impossible to ignore them.



So let Ajit be annoyed. Boo. Fucking. Hoo. If you had left Net Neutrality alone, you would be just fine.... but you had to go and mess with it, and now California and New York are introducing even STRICTER Net Neutrality rules.



So Mr Pai, and the big lobbyists of ISP's.... I think I speak for a huge group of people when I say the following words: FUCK YOU.

Economist

The economy, stupid

Premium Member

join:2015-07-10

united state ·AT&T FTTP

70 recommendations Economist Premium Member Awe....poor Pai It's okay little guy. That cushy 7 figure bed of telecom gig cash waiting for you when you are done raping consumers on behalf of your industry puppet masters will make you feel all better.



That is if you don't find yourself in prison for corruption first. chrismitt

join:2012-07-09

Orange, CA 34 recommendations chrismitt Member When? When can I smack the smile off that Jack Ass's face?he does nothing but lie lie lie

TIGERON

join:2008-03-11

Boston, MA 31 recommendations TIGERON Member Lying sack of shit I'd like to punch Pai in the face.

spewak

R.I.P Dadkins

Premium Member

join:2001-08-07

Elk Grove, CA 22 recommendations spewak Premium Member Markey slam Aweshit,

You got slammed by Sen. Markey you filthy piece of shit! Remember, 52 votes....

GlennLouEarl

3 brothers, 1 gone

Premium Member

join:2002-11-17

Richmond, VA 19 recommendations GlennLouEarl Premium Member THAT'S who he reminds me of... The Noid

ARGONAUT

Have a nice day.

Premium Member

join:2006-01-24

New Albany, IN 14 recommendations ARGONAUT Premium Member ha..ha..ha.. Ajit Pai you made the monkey laugh!

Anon85ddb

@suddenlink.net 7 recommendations Anon85ddb Anon Simple Math Whoever votes against net neutrality reinstatement will not get reelected. The people want to be heard this time, there will be no passing bills privately without consequences.

Anon85f8f

@amazonaws.com 6 recommendations Anon85f8f Anon So What, let him be annoyed This is one person that should NEVER have been placed into power of the FCC. No current or former executive of a conflicting industry should ever be in charge of the FCC. Their knowledge isn't what will benefit the FCC, its the POWER of change to help their friends in big CORPORATE.



Ajit Pai should have a heart attack soon or maybe he should go back to the country he was born in and ruin their telecom laws. qworster

join:2001-11-25

Bryn Mawr, PA 3 recommendations qworster Member The stupidity is strong.... The stupidity is strong with these Trump troll cult hive people.