Trump Picks an Anti-Consumer, Ex-Verizon Lawyer to Run the FCC On the heels of reports from last Friday, current FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai has confirmed he's the new acting head of the FCC, a selection quickly applauded by ISPs like Comcast and AT&T. On Twitter Pai thanked Trump for the opportunity to lead an agency he has made it abundantly clear he intends to try and dismantle. Pai has also repeatedly stated that it's only a matter of time before the agency rolls back net neutrality rules under his leadership, a controversial decision that will see no limit of activist and consumer backlash given the rules' broad, bipartisan support among users.

"I am deeply grateful to the President of the United States for designating me the 34th Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission," Pai said in a statement (pdf). "I look forward to working with the new Administration, my colleagues at the Commission, members of Congress, and the American public to bring the benefits of the digital age to all Americans. Consumer advocates were quick to point out that if you think AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and Charter should be allowed to do whatever they like with minimal to no accountability, Pai is certainly your man. "Ajit Pai has been on the wrong side of just about every major issue that has come before the FCC during his tenure," notes consumer advocacy group Free Press. "He’s never met a mega-merger he didn’t like or a public safeguard he didn’t try to undermine. He’s been an inveterate opponent of Net Neutrality, expanded broadband access for low-income families, broadband privacy, prison-phone justice, media diversity and more." "If Trump really wanted an FCC chairman who’d stand up against the runaway media consolidation that he himself decried in the AT&T/Time Warner deal, Pai would have been his last choice -- though corporate lobbyists across the capital are probably thrilled," added the group. They are. Most ISPs know full well that with Pai in charge of the agency, accountability will be going on vacation for a very long while. "No one is more prepared to reframe the agency to address the needs of this rapidly changing marketplace," AT&T said of the pick. "This is a terrific appointment for the American consumer and the companies the FCC regulates and we look forward to continuing to work with Chairman Pai in his new role," said Comcast's top lobbyist David Cohen. This sort of breathless support is because Pai is a long-standing opponent of not only net neutrality, but nearly every single attempt to protect consumers or bring real, sustained competition to the US broadband market. Pai has even voted down attempts to hold AT&T accountable for actively helping scammers rip off the company's own customers. Pai similarly opposed attempts to hold Verizon accountable for covertly modifying user data packets so consumers could be tracked around the internet without their consent or awareness. Pai even fought against attempts to prevent telecom companies from ripping off prison inmate families. At one point, Pai tried to claim that the US net neutrality rules would somehow encourage dictators in Iran and North Korea. On another occasion, Pai tried to claim large ISPs were entirely innocent of all anti-competitive behavior, and Netflix was the one violating neutrality simply for operating a CDN. Pai has also repeatedly supported eliminating media consolidation rules, and has never been capable of even admitting that the US broadband market has some serious competition issues. The problem, of course, is that Pai's extreme, outdated, industry-cozy positions run in stark contrast to Trump's swamp-draining, populist election promises, and eventually -- you'd have to think that at least a few people will notice. The problem, of course, is that Pai's extreme, outdated, industry-cozy positions run in stark contrast to Trump's swamp-draining, populist election promises, and eventually -- you'd have to think that at least a few people will notice.







News Jump 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 Cogeco Rejects Altice USA's Atlantic Broadband Bid; AT&T Is Astroturfing The FCC In Support Of Trump Attack; + more news ---------------------- this week last week most discussed

Most recommended from 206 comments



TestBoy

Premium Member

join:2009-10-13

Irmo, SC 26 recommendations TestBoy Premium Member I already said my piece about this. Yes. We are screwed.

Corrupt lying cheating psychopath Pai.



Third world internet access here we come.

UnloadedOne

join:2015-04-04

Astoria, NY 22 recommendations UnloadedOne Member If I had to put any positive spin on this... If there is one shred of positivity that I can glean from this announcement, it's that this fellow will keep discussions on this site...lively....for some time to come. RichNice

join:2003-01-09

Bowie, MD 11 recommendations RichNice Member Welp... This is what 30% of the country voted for; get ready for a wild ride.

TIGERON

join:2008-03-11

Boston, MA Motorola MG7550

8 recommendations TIGERON Member from Dampier : Here's a few things that you need to know about this piece a shit who is now the new head of the FCC :



"Pai and his chief of staff Matthew Berry vocally opposed efforts by Wheeler to monitor and manage providers’ implementation of data caps and zero rating schemes that exempt provider-preferred content from usage allowances or speed throttles. Pai said Wheeler’s inquiries to carriers regarding zero rating practices showed “the era of permissonless innovation is over,” followed by a Tweet from Mr. Berry complaining that, “If you come up with an innovative service, you will be hauled into FCC to explain yourself.” In 2012, Pai decried allowing Net Neutrality to take hold because it could lead to eventual regulation of usage-based pricing policies.



Pai fiercely opposes Net Neutrality and told an audience at the conservative Free State Foundation in December he will remove “outdated and unnecessary regulations” and “fire up the weed-wacker and remove those rules that are holding back investment, innovation, and job creation.”

In 2015, Pai cut and pasted large sections of AT&T’s website into a dissent over the FCC’s plan to fine the phone giant $100 million for deceiving customers about its “unlimited data” plan. Pai’s statement defended AT&T’s business practices and blamed consumers for not understanding AT&T’s definition of “unlimited.”



Pai voted against the Charter – Time Warner Cable/Bright House Networks merger not because he opposed it. He was upset that Chairman Wheeler insisted on a seven-year ban on Charter implementing data caps. “Chairman Wheeler’s order isn’t about competition, competition, competition; it’s about regulation, regulation, regulation. It’s about imposing conditions that have nothing to do with the merits of this transaction. It’s about the government micromanaging the Internet economy,” said his spokesperson.



Pai partly dissented from the AT&T buyout of DirecTV because he didn’t like the deal’s conditions mandating affordable internet access for consumers, marketplace protections for competing online video services, and a strongly empowered compliance officer assigned to make certain AT&T met its obligations — a lesson the FCC learned after Comcast was accused of skirting its obligations in its acquisition of NBCUniversal.



Complained Comcast’s efforts to buy Time Warner Cable would be dead on arrival ‘because the Obama administration has shown itself much less likely to approve major telecom mergers — such as the blocked AT&T-T-Mobile merger — than a Republican administration might be.’

Opposed Wheeler’s effort to force open the set-top box marketplace to competition so consumers can buy their own cable boxes at a lower cost.



Called Wheeler’s push to have the minimum broadband speed standard reset to 25Mbps “incoherent,” claiming that 71 percent of consumers who can already buy access at those speeds don’t want or need it and that there was no need to push wired providers to deliver faster access because Verizon and AT&T already offer 4G LTE service to 98.5% of America."



Get ready. Your internet bill is going to be a LOT more expensive. pawpaw

join:2004-05-05

Asheville, NC ·Charter

6 recommendations pawpaw Member Truth in advertising Violate net neutrality? Inspect or mess with the packets? Then you are not adhering to internet standards and may no longer call your service "Internet". You also lose Safe Harbor protections, all relevant subsidies and tax breaks and fall under the jurisdiction of the Federal Trade Commission.

wavelength

CyberSec Pro

join:2015-05-22

Raleigh, NC 4 recommendations wavelength Member Yay, another lawyer and ex-lobbyist at the FCC Not surprised by the pick at all, but the FCC needs more engineers who understand the highly technical things they are regulating and overseeing, not another ideologue with no engineering experience. whatsupdoc (banned)

join:2017-01-08

Mickleton, NJ 2 recommendations whatsupdoc (banned) Member 2 FCC seats to be filled There are 2 FCC seats to be filled. 1 will be a Republican(bringing the # to 3 on the FCC). And the other must be a Democrat. Usually the Senate will cut a deal and the Republican will be hand picked by Trump and the Dems in Senate will hand pick their choice. And the Senate will automatically confirm both choices.



Republican possibles are:

David Fellows and Jeffrey Eisenach



Dem possibles are:

John Branscome and Phil Weiser

amarryat

Verizon FiOS

join:2005-05-02

Marshfield, MA 2 recommendations amarryat Member Simply changes competitive strategy Looking forward to the new options T-Mobile and Sprint will have vs. Verizon and AT&T