FCC Using Thanksgiving to Hide Attack on Net Neutrality The FCC knows its attack on net neutrality is hugely unpopular among the nation's consumers. That's why the agency is planning to formally unveil its plan while he nation is distracted by the Thanksgiving holiday and the quest for the perfect cranberry sauce. Numerous sources indicate that the agency will unveil its agenda to roll back the rules either Wednesday -- when much of America is busy preparing for the holiday, or Friday -- when much of America is busy shopping. The actual vote to axe the rules will occur December 15.

The hope is to downplay the negative media backlash against FCC boss Ajit Pai for what, by any measure, is seen as a grotesque handout to one of the least competitive and least popular industries in America. Surveys have consistently and repeatedly shown that the 2015 rules have broad, bipartisan support. That's because however divided we are as a nation, most people realize that the lack of competition in the broadband industry can and is frequently abused by companies like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast -- whether that's AT&T charging you hundreds of extra dollars to opt out of snoopvertising, or Comcast's use of usage caps and overage fees as a blunt weapon against streaming video alternatives. The FCC's 2015 net neutrality rules weren't even particularly tough by international standards. While the rules did have meaningful transparency requirements and prohibited the outright blocking or throttling of websites, they failed to seriously prohibit zero rating or other, more creative abuses. But ISPs have long been less worried about the rules, and more worried that the return to Title II classification of ISPs as common carriers would open the door to actually stopping industry duopolists from engaging in predatory pricing. As such, they've spent millions of dollars on lawsuits and bogus economic studies falsely claiming that the modest rules devastated sector investment, a claim that has been debunked by journalists time and time and time again. As we've long noted, consumers angry about this need to understand that dismantling net neutrality is going to be a two step plan. Ajit Pai will first play good cop by voting to dismantle the rules, taking the brunt of the criticism as an unaccountable, unelected bureaucrat. After that, expect a concerted effort by incumbent ISPs (and the think tankers, politicians and other sockpuppets paid to love them) for a new law. This law will be presented as a "solution" to the problem they created, but will be quite literally written by ISP lobbyists, ensuring it's so flimsy as to be effectively useless. What said legislation will do is codify federal apathy into law, ensuring that the FCC can't revisit the issue down the road. Fortunately for consumers, ISPs and myopic lawmakers continue to underestimate the looming backlash to this effort, and the tidal wave of negative consumer sentiment that will inform telecom and media policy -- and voting choices -- for years to come. What said legislationdo is codify federal apathy into law, ensuring that the FCC can't revisit the issue down the road. Fortunately for consumers, ISPs and myopic lawmakers continue to underestimate the looming backlash to this effort, and the tidal wave of negative consumer sentiment that will inform telecom and media policy -- and voting choices -- for years to come.







News Jump 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 5G Doesn't Live Up To Hype, AT&T's 5G Slower Than Its 4G; Cord-Cutting Now In 37% of Broadband Households; + more news FCC Cited False Broadband Data Despite Warnings; ZTE, Huawei Replacement Cost Is $1.87B, But Only $1B Allocated; + more ---------------------- this week last week most discussed

Most recommended from 31 comments



cork1958

Cork

Premium Member

join:2000-02-26 30 recommendations cork1958 Premium Member Hard to decide? This guy sure makes it very tough to decide on who the biggest dick in Washington is!

pende_tim

Premium Member

join:2004-01-04

Andover, NJ 12 recommendations pende_tim Premium Member Lets All Meet Lets all meet back here in a year and see how this went. Topics to discuss:

1. Infrastructure Investment

2. Broad Band Cost to Consumer

3. Competition from third party ISPs

4. Last mile improvements

TIGERON

join:2008-03-11

Boston, MA 8 recommendations TIGERON Member Somebody needs to deck Pai in the face Can’t stand looking at his ugly mug. kinda pissed

join:2012-06-06

Newsoms, VA 7 recommendations kinda pissed Member Naivety Anyone who thinks big ISP is gonna suddenly play nice and not take advantage of the death of net neutrality frankly is naive and hasn't been paying attention Ostracus

join:2011-09-05

Henderson, KY 2 recommendations Ostracus Member Storming the fort.



»www.cnbc.com/2017/11/13/ ··· day.html And yet Barry Diller thinks Net Neutrality is essentially "unassailable".