Trump's New FCC Boss Halts Agency's Net Neutrality Enforcement As expected, new FCC boss Ajit Pai has wasted no time rolling back FCC efforts and regulations the industry's largest ISPs don't much like. In a late Friday news dump designed to avoid media attention, the new FCC boss announced that among other things, the FCC gave the full green light to zero rating, shutting down an FCC inquiry into the practice. The last FCC had declared that AT&T and Verizon's implementations of zero rating specifically (where they let their own content bypass caps but still penalize competitors) is anti-competitive and violates net neutrality.

But Pai, a former Verizon lawyer, sees no problems with large ISPs using arbitrary usage caps to give themselves a competitive advantage in the market. "Today, the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau is closing its investigation into wireless carriers' free-data offerings," new FCC boss Ajit Pai said in a statement (pdf). "These free-data plans have proven to be popular among consumers, particularly low-income Americans, and have enhanced competition in the wireless marketplace. Going forward, the Federal Communications Commission will not focus on denying Americans free data. Instead, we will concentrate on expanding broadband deployment and encouraging innovative service offerings." Ignored in Pai's statement is the fact that "free data" in this context isn't really free; ISPs are simply shifting the burden of cost to content providers (and ultimately consumers), who suddenly face having to pay more if they want their content on the same level playing field as incumbent services. When you, the ISP, give your own content a leg up -- you're automatically putting other services at a disadvantage. Zero rating wasn't the only thing to get the axe in Pai's late Friday flurry of announcements. Pai also used the FCC equivalent of an executive order to cut Lifeline funding to 9 ISPs serving lower incomes communities, eliminated recently passed agency guidance intended to keep in check broadcast media consolidation, and purged new rules improving political-advertising transparency. In his first few weeks in office, Pai also helped kill an attempt to stop telcos from ripping off prison inmates families, and quietly killed the FCC's attempt to bring additional competition to the cable box. "With these strong-arm tactics, Chairman Pai is showing his true stripes," consumer advocacy group Free Press said in a statement. "The public wants an FCC that helps people. Instead, it got one that does favors for the powerful corporations its chairman used to work for." On the net neutrality front, it's widely believed that Pai will initially just chose to ignore the net neutrality rules on the books. From there, it's believed that the GOP will be pushing a Communications Act rewrite with a specific eye on not only killing net neutrality and the agency's new consumer privacy protections, but defunding and defanging the FCC as a consumer protection mechanism entirely.







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PapaMidnight

join:2009-01-13

Baltimore, MD 9 recommendations PapaMidnight Member We Knew What His "True Stripes" Looked Like quote: "With these strong-arm tactics, Chairman Pai is showing his true stripes," consumer advocacy group Free Press said in a statement. "The public wants an FCC that helps people. Instead, it got one that does favors for the powerful corporations its chairman used to work for." Ajit Pai's colours have been known for years, so we knew from the start what an FCC under his heading would look like. I don't know why Free Press has worded their reaction to his policies as such - as if we didn't know this would be the actions he would take. The only action Pai could take that would surprise me is if he actually did take an action that benefits consumers. When Tom Wheeler came in, we had reason to be skeptical. A former industry man coming to head the FCC? How could he be any different than the prior revolving door of FCC chairmen - especially with the appointment lauded by said industry? Yet, we were fairly surprised with what he brought to the table.Ajit Pai's colours have been known for years, so we knew from the start what an FCC under his heading would look like. I don't know why Free Press has worded their reaction to his policies as such - as if we didn't know this would be the actions he would take. The only action Pai could take that would surprise me is if he actually did take an action that benefits consumers.

SrsBsns

join:2001-08-30

Oklahoma City, OK 3 recommendations SrsBsns Member This sums it up Please see » en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cr ··· pitalism