Brian Fung

[Commentary] Comcast has been engaged in a public relations battle lately to convince policymakers and the public that it is all in favor of network neutrality, or the idea that Internet traffic should be treated equally by Internet service providers no matter where it came from or what's contained in it.

In an ongoing ad campaign, Comcast touts that it's the only Internet service provider (or ISP) legally bound by "full" net neutrality and that the company wants to expand that commitment to even more people.

None of what Comcast has claimed is factually untrue. But the company omits some facts in its advertising that gives the impression that it is unconditionally committed to "full" net neutrality, whatever that might mean, when the bigger picture is somewhat more complicated.

What Comcast doesn't say is that its commitment to "full" net neutrality expires in 2018. After that, it will no longer be legally bound to follow the 2010 rules, and it'll be free to abandon that commitment literally overnight. Comcast does not note this detail in its ads; nor does it explain how its policies may change in 2018.

It turns out that, as a percentage of the money they pull in, Internet service providers (ISPs) have generally spent less on infrastructure over time -- from a high of 37 percent of revenue in some cases to a low of around 12 percent more recently. This affects how reliable your connections are, what kind of speeds you get and the amount you pay for service each month.

Some companies are building out fiber directly to the home. But not all; fiber is expensive. The question now is whether ISP spending will rise again to meet the new demand.

NASA is investigating ways to put commercial satellites into the planet's orbit. A network of privately funded satellite relays could take advantage of next-generation, laser-based data links capable of sending information back to Earth hundreds of times faster than the typical American broadband connection.

The Federal Communications Commission says more than 1 million people have now submitted comments on network neutrality. With the closing of the extended comment period looming, the FCC's net neutrality docket now has more comments than any other rulemaking proceeding.

[Commentary] A Comcast customer service call from hell highlights something that isn't as easily quantified by cold, hard economic analysis. The Federal Communications Commission, one of two agencies along with the Justice Department charged with approving the merger of Comcast and Time Warner Cable, typically considers the public interest as part of its mandate.

Consumer advocates argue that quality customer service ought to be included under that umbrella. Yet the very fact that people are making that case at all underscores how subjective the term "public interest" really is, and why it's sometimes easier to focus on what can be measured or projected numerically.

Google isn't exactly sitting on its hands in the network neutrality debate. It's taking a more oblique approach to the Washington game -- like speaking through industry groups.

Google has also, like Netflix, begun shaming Internet providers that it perceives as laggards in the video streaming department. And it is clear Google hasn't completely disengaged from issues of Internet policy. It's simply grown more selective in its battles, and perhaps a little more ninja-like in the way it fights them.

In an effort to survive, Aereo's throwing everything against the wall and hoping something -- anything -- sticks. Its latest tactic? To embrace the Supreme Court decision that effectively killed its existing business model, and to work within the confines of the ruling to arrive at an alternative that won't land the company in court again.

Aereo is now conceding that it is a cable company after all, after having argued the opposite point before the Supreme Court. The company now says it's willing to pay those licensing fees -- but to the Copyright Office, rather than to the broadcasters who were suing Aereo in the first place. In short, Aereo is trying to thread a very small needle: It wants to say it's just enough of a cable company that it qualifies for the benefits that come along with it (more on that shortly) but not so much of a cable company that it needs to pay expensive retransmission fees required of other cable companies.

If Aereo admits that it's a cable company in the eyes of the copyright law, what's to stop the FCC from branding Aereo as a cable company that has to pay retransmission fees? Aereo's only hope at avoiding that outcome rests on the FCC's historical reluctance to say whether online video services count as MVPDs.

We're one step closer to a world where it's no longer a huge chore to take your existing cell phone to another network. The Senate Judiciary Committee just unanimously approved a bill that'd make it easier for you to "unlock" your cell phone so that you can port it to a different carrier -- much in the way you can bring your phone number with you.

"With today’s strong bipartisan vote in the Judiciary Committee, I hope the full Senate can soon take up this important legislation that supports consumer rights," said Sen Patrick Leahy (D-VT), the committee chairman. The House has already passed a similar bill -- but unlike the House version the Senate's, notably, doesn't forbid people from unlocking lots of cell phones. That language is important when it comes to businesses that trade in second-hand devices; currently, you can only unlock your phone if you ask for your carrier's permission (and only at the end of your contract).

Over a six-month period in 2013, Washington (DC) data show, calls to 911 were easily narrowed down to a general geographic area covered by a single cell tower. But a startling proportion of those calls lacked the latitude-longitude data required by federal regulations for pinpointing people in distress.

The more specific data was missing for as many as 90 percent of such calls over a six-month period in 2013, according to data from the DC government that was provided to the FCC and obtained by the Washington Post. Of the 385,341 wireless calls to 911 made during that time, technological systems were able to provide accurate location data for only 39,805.

Dispatchers in some cases may have been able to get an address from the caller. But in other cases -- for instance, where the caller was unable to speak due to danger or injury -- dispatchers would have had little to go on aside from a search area the size of a few city blocks.

Other data the DC government provided to the Federal Communications Commission -- covering a three-month period in the summer of 2014 and breaking the calls down by wireless carrier -- showed that some carriers did a better job than others at providing the latitude-longitude data. But rates of compliance were still no better than a coin toss, according to the research.

One of the most vocal skeptics of industry consolidation, Sen Al Franken (D-MN) hasn't pulled any punches when it comes to the proposed merger between Comcast and Time Warner Cable -- a deal that would give Comcast control over roughly 30 percent of the pay-TV market. Now, the lawmaker is setting his sights on another major deal: AT&T's proposal to acquire DirecTV.

In a letter to federal regulators, Sen Franken warns that letting the deal go through could turn AT&T into a gatekeeper to the mobile Internet. Sen Franken also complains that AT&T took inappropriate steps to block Internet applications like Google Voice and Skype. "AT&T has a history of skirting the spirit, and perhaps the letter" of the government's rules on network neutrality, Sen Franken wrote.