Ms. Buyer is a regular columnist for the THE BULLETIN of the Bar Association of Erie County and is a contributor to No Jitter. Previously, she has written numerous commentaries on telecommunications law for other legal and telecommunications publications including, among others, The Daily Record, Communications Convergence and Computer Telephony. Her articles cover a broad range of topics highlighting current telecommunications issues including federal and state telecommunications policy, litigation, wireless technologies, spectrum policy, FCC initiatives, and industry consolidation. Martha Buyer has also contributed to the ABA Journal Report.
Proponents red and blue, at state and federal levels, are gunning for the FCC on behalf of their constituents.
Sometimes what seems like a good idea philosophically doesn't work well practically. Think of 1985's "New Coke." Or 2017's decision by the Federal Communications Commission to abandon the 2015 Net neutrality rules.
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.
January 10, 2018 | tagged No Jitter | in Broadband Deployment, Consumer Issues, Law & Policy 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.
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.
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.