FCC Attempts to Weaken Broadband Standard

Rather than hold providers accountable, the Commission wants to lower speed requirements and loosen definition of competition.You may have missed this item with the uproar around the FCC's recent decision to repeal Net neutrality rules, but the agency is prepared to harm consumers further by changing the definition of what constitutes “broadband service” for compliance purposes.

Click to read more ...

The Battle Over Net Neutrality: What’s Next

After what seems like a month long diet of butter and sugar, it’s time to return to reality… the reality before the final two weeks of the year. In our last episode, the FCC had just voted, along strict party lines, to abandon the Net neutrality rules put into play by the Obama Administration in 2015 and approved by the courts in 2016.  This action, which moves the Internet from utility-like regulation to a much less rigid regulatory structure, would allow ISPs to block access to content, slow down service delivery, and offer paid prioritization of traffic, among other things. 

Click to read more ...

A Comment on Today’s Net Neutrality Decision

I do not now, nor have I ever, belonged to a political party.  I have never missed voting in a November election, and have happily and easily voted for both Republicans and Democrats.  I share this only to put what follows in context. The FCC’s horribly partisan decision on the Net Neutrality rules put in place in 2015 is exactly why, although I have opinions on political issues, I’ve never committed to one party or the other.  I can’t remember ever being as disappointed as I was today in the position taken by the majority commissioners (Chairman Pai and Commissioners O’Rielly and Carr) that hurts consumers in ways that are far removed from the insular bubble that is Washington, DC.

Click to read more ...

Net Neutrality - Why This Battle Is So Critical

Every time I get a junk fax, I file a complaint with the FCC. Last week, when I received the most recent “too good to be true” offer, I went to file another one, and the first thing that I noticed is that across the top of the FCC’s complaint homepage is a banner providing a short cut to the place where the FCC is taking comments on its proposal to roll back net neutrality rules,  the Obama-era Open Internet Order that the agency is poised to dismantle before year end.  Even the way that the act has been titled, “The Restoring Internet Freedom Act”  is offensive to those of us who believe that while we may be sufficiently lucky to enjoy the benefits of them,  there remain many greater goods than shareholder return.

Click to read more ...

Changing Broadband Definitions

It’s hard to imagine that this is a political issue, but it’s a very hot one!
 
It’s a question that’s almost as old as the one about the chicken and egg.  If too many kids are failing a test, is the test too hard, or are kids not working hard enough, or not being taught sufficiently well, to master the material necessary to pass?  Across the spectrum from education to business to sports, and now to internet access, this question is asked thousands of times when, for any number of reasons (some of them even good reasons), defined benchmarks are missed. 

Click to read more ...