WISPA Cheers the Death of Net Neutrality Millions of consumers, internet pioneers, startups and small ISPs oppose the FCC's attack on net neutrality rules, arguing the move will hurt the health of the internet and competition. But the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association (WISPA) -- a coalition of small wireless service providers -- is applauding the repeal, claiming (without evidence) that the rules dramatically harmed their ability to do business. WISPA had been lobbying the Trump administration to kill the net neutrality protections for the better part of the year.

While WISPA claims in a statement that the FCC's 2015 rules were "onerous," they're actually among some of the weaker protections in the world -- carving out sizeable loopholes for all manner of net network management and zero rating. The previous FCC under Tom Wheeler also carved out massive transparency exemptions for small ISPs who worried they'd be over-burdened by these requirements. And while WISPA similarly tries to claim its small member ISPs experienced severe hardship due to these popular rules, not a single one of them has been able to provide hard, independent data that actually supports that claim. In fact, one recent FCC claim citing five ISPs whose network investments were purportedly curtailed by the rules, actually found that all five of those ISPs had blatently misstated the harm the rules caused them, and notably expanded their network footprints while the rules were active. And while the Trump administration's plans would all but demolish state and federal oversight of a largely non-competitive broadband market, WISPA, like Comcast and other large ISPs, pinky swears that its member ISPS will be on their best behavior in the wake of the repeal. Entirely-voluntarily promises will be enough to protect consumers, WISPA insists. “WISPA agrees that ISPs should clearly disclose their terms of service, disclose their network management practices, and protect their customers’ private information; and our members do. All of this will continue under the FCC framework adopted today,” claims WISPA boss Chuck Hogg. That's simply not likely. The Trump administration's plan is to gut FCC oversight of ISPs, then shovel all remaining oversight to an FTC that lacks the authority to police bad behavior. They'll hope you ignore the fact that AT&T is currently suing to eliminate any FTC oversight the agency does have. Trump's FCC, responding directly to Comcast and Verizon lobbying request, has also made it clear it plans to crack down on states that try to protect consumers. If you're interested in only doing business with ISPs that support net neutrality, you can find WISPA's complete ISP member roster If you're interested in only doing business with ISPs that support net neutrality, you can find WISPA's complete ISP member roster here







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Most recommended from 54 comments



rebus9

join:2002-03-26

Tampa Bay 18 recommendations rebus9 Member No Surprise Wireless service providers come up way short in bandwidth capacity compared to their fiber/cable competitors. So it's no surprise they favor an environment where they can discriminate on traffic and demand tolls, in the form of paid prioritization, lest ye traffic be throttled.



I believe as this plays out, we'll see telco, cableco, and wireless providers (maybe not all) continue pushing the limit on fees, prioritization, throttling, et al, until they hit that line in the sand where widespread public outcry demanding reinstatement of net neutrality threatens their business model. Anyone who remembers the Netflix misery of 2013 knows that I'm talking about.



Then they'll back it down.... just a little, to cool things off.... and pat themselves on the back for instituting new consumer-friendly policies.



You know it's going to happen.

me1212

join:2008-11-20

Pleasant Hill, MO 12 recommendations me1212 Member Duh? Back when I frequented the WISP forum here on this very site the owners that posted there were by far some of the scummiest people i'd met. Even blocking stuff like vonage to push their own branded voip. Of course these things are happy.

Anon8fb97

@2029-1-batblue.net 2 recommendations Anon8fb97 Anon It's probably unfair. . . But I cannot stand the WISP community. Seems like they're constantly upset they cant run an ISP out of the back of of a truck and look to blame just about anybody else for it.